Breaking the Gilded Cage
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Desperate to rewrite her fate, Natsume utilizes a little known aspect of the Vongola Rings to return to her younger self. She never thought she would discover that she was related to another mafia family! Natsume quickly begins to find new headaches as her grandmother's legacy comes home to roost. On the plus side, it's still less of a headache than the Vongola's nonsense.
1. Chapter 1

"Grandpa... what is this?"

In the little girl's hands was an odd pendant of sorts with strange writing. It didn't look Japanese at all, and there was a funny symbol in the middle, with the writing around it in a circle. The entire pendant was made of something that looked a lot like precious metals.

"That is something that belonged to your grandmother, Reiko. She inherited it from her mother, so that she always remembered who she came from. Even though she was the oldest, her younger sister took over the family. I'm afraid I don't know much more than that," he replied.

"I have a great aunt?" said the girl, all wide eyed innocence and amazement.

"Great Aunt Luce. I believe she had a daughter a little older than you...something to do with music if I recall correctly."

"Wow!" said the child.

Her grandfather chuckled indulgently.

"You may have that if you wish. Just don't let the other kids see it or they may become jealous."

"Okay!" said the child, losing interest...but not before slipping the pendant around her neck.

 _Later that night..._

"So I'm related to Yuni by Luce? Wish I had known that the first time...would have saved me a lot of grief," mused the child.

Where the 'innocence' had been was replaced by tired maturity. It would be hard to believe that the little girl who had excitedly inquired about an odd pendant she stumbled across was only six, if one were to observe her now.

Natsume rolled to her side on the futon. Under the light of the moon she could clearly make out the odd writing on the pendant...which she easily identified as Italian. She was just as familiar with the symbol in the center. It belonged to the Giglio Nero famiglia in Italy.

That could explain why Reiko's gift had been so strong. The Giglio Nero's bloodline was directly related to Sepira, who had the ability to see into the future up until her death. Add in whoever her maternal grandfather was, and Reiko likely got a double dose of the Sight on top of her unusually strong spiritaul powers.

Natsume gazed at the pendant, which she suspected was genuine gold and possibly silver or white gold. It was fairly obvious why Reiko had this... if her flames ever awakened she would need the pendant to prove to the Vindice and possibly any Triads that stumbled across her that she wasn't a 'free Element'. From what Natsume could tell, based off the echoes of memories from the Book and what the youkai could tell her about Reiko, odds were that she was a Cloud or a Mist.

She was betting on Cloud though. Reiko was too strong willed and disinclined to socializing with normal humans to be a Mist.

Natsume clutched the pendant tightly. She had to keep this safe...because if things happened the same way it did before, she would need this to get away from the 'fate' destined for her.

As it was, she needed to think of a convincing 'story' to explain to her grandfather's relatives so they wouldn't send her back to her mother.

Nana was a nice enough woman, but thanks to Iemitsu she was barely acceptable as a mother. Any emotional support was cut off shortly after she was turned seven when Iemitsu visit ended.

Nana might not admit it, but she blamed her daughter's inability to do _anything_ right as the cause for why her father never stuck around. And when that 'belief' was confirmed by her utter failure in school, Nana fully gave up on her daughter accomplishing _anything_.

No matter what, she had to avoid that house and Iemitsu!

 _Some time later..._

"What a tragedy, for Natsume to lose their grandfather so young..."

"What are we to do with the child though?"

"I cannot take him at this time, we cannot afford it."

"What of the boy's mother?"

Natsume knew this was the critical moment. She had to act _perfectly_ in order to avoid that house and her fate.

The moment they attempted to take her back to Namimori, she acted terrified.

"Ne, Natsume? Whatever is the matter? Don't you want to go home?" asked his distant cousin.

Natsume shook her head emphatically.

"Mama let the bad people in, and didn't believe me."

That got their attention.

"What bad people?" asked Aunt Yoriko. Being surrounded by so many relatives, this was her best chance to spread this particular rumor about Nana and insure she didn't return.

"Mama's husband brought a strange foreign man with him that I never saw before, shortly before I was sent to live with grandpa. He told me I had to call him grandpa too, but something felt wrong with him," said Natsume honestly. She shivered in fear and disgust. "The strange man came into my room one night and did something funny. I don't remember what it was, but I started tripping over things when they finally left. The teachers were unhappy by the way my grades dropped so soon after their visit, so they sent me to live with grandpa. But Mama didn't believe me when I said the old man was in my room. She said her husband wouldn't bring someone bad with him to visit and refused to listen."

All quite true, save for one small detail. Timoteo had never gone into her room, and her grades dropping was because of the seal he placed on her as a child. However he _was_ the cause of why she suddenly went from a bright, happy child to a introverted one who shied away from others, and why her grades suddenly dropped like a stone.

Which were roughly the same signs one would see if a child was heavily traumatized by something, hence why she was sent to live with her maternal grandfather since her mother wouldn't listen to reason.

Add in her ability to see ayakashi, and her childhood had not been fun at all. Nana openly believed her only child was a horrible liar.

Seeing the looks of the adults, it didn't take much for them to opt in waiting before taking her 'home'.

Less than a week later, she was sent to live with a distant cousin. Apparently enough of her story rang 'true' that they couldn't in good conscience send her home...especially when Nana admitted her husband was planning to make a visit since she recently lost her father.

After hearing Natsume's story about the "strange man", none of her distant relatives wanted her to be exposed to Iemitsu twice.

 _Natsume, age nine..._

The miko was rather strange. Even though everyone could see her, there was something 'off' about her. She was also handing something to the patrons of the shrine to 'drum up business'. By all appearances it appeared to be small charms inside boxes.

Natsume walked up to the miko.

"Auntie, what are you handing out?" she asked innocently.

While being shuffled around different families sucked, it was better than having to worry about that fate repeating itself.

The miko smiled at her, and for a moment there was a really powerful presence behind her. However it felt warm and comforting like sunlight, so Natsume wasn't afraid.

"What an adorable child," said the miko. She reached into the bag and pulled out another box.

To the outside observer, it appeared to be the same as all the other boxes. But to Natsume, who could See things no one else could, it glowed from an internal light.

"Can you keep a secret, little one? Inside the box is a special gift...however you shouldn't open it just yet. If you do, then the gift will weaken and go away."

Natsume took the box with utter seriousness.

"When should I open it, Auntie?" she asked.

"When the time is right, I'll let you know. Until then keep it safe," said the miko with a smile.

"Okay Auntie, I promise to keep it safe and not open it until you tell me to!" said Natsume.

Natsume put the box next to the odd book of 'scribbles' made by Reiko.

In her previous life, that book had caused no end of trouble for her until it suddenly went missing. She still had no idea what it was, just that it was important to the ayakashi for some reason.

She didn't notice the gentle way the miko smiled, like an indulgent parent that watched over it's child.

Only time would tell if the little girl would keep her promise.

 _Natsume, age eleven..._

It felt like the walls were closing in. Invisible chains were slowly starting to coil around her, ensnaring her in order to drag her soul into a gilded cage from where there was no escape.

It would be three years before she was the same age she had been at when Reborn showed up in her life and dragged her into that hell, even if it didn't look like it at the time. She didn't blame him though...not until the end when his arrogance and inability to realize there was something 'off' about her caused him to go too far.

Even then she didn't hate him. She hated the Vongola and the Ninth generation.

Natsume was about to head to school when she spotted a familiar face. Well, more like she sensed the aura of the miko she had met a few years (and five families) ago.

She kept looking straight ahead, and barely registered the light 'bump' the presence gave her.

It wasn't until she got back to the house that she realized something.

The ribbon around the little box she had carried around for so long was undone. She had never opened it, and she had moved to another area by the next morning after receiving it. As far as they knew, it was something of Reiko's. It was so boring that no one bothered it.

Natsume carefully opened the box.

Inside was a small set of bracelets, each with a set of golden colored beads. They were too small to wear around her neck, but she could possibly slip them around her wrists and ankles.

Slipping them on, she could feel a strange power welling from inside the beads. When the last one was in place, she felt something strange.

"Why...am I...so dizzy..."

Natsume blacked out. Strangely, she wasn't afraid in the least.

Unseen by the occupants of the house, a figure approached the sleeping girl.

" _ **What an honest child...to have kept that promise. I will not allow those foolish outsiders to write your destiny for you. Consider this my gift to you for keeping the promise you made."**_

The beads around her wrists and ankles glowed like sunlight, before sinking into Natsume's body. They would remain unseen for now, hiding her from those that came from the West who wished to use her as a puppet. The figure paused, before a sly smirk appeared on her face.

" _ **Perhaps you can be the next inheritor of those powers..."**_

The pre-teen sound asleep on the futon already had great spiritual abilities, but she had limited knowledge of how to use them correctly. She was barely able to fend off the ayakashi that came after her as it was now.

The figure gently touched the girl's forehead, allowing a light to sink into her mind. On the desk, they placed a brush and special gourd that was full of black ink.

To anyone else, it was an ordinary object to be dismissed...but in the hands of a child as strong as Natsume, combined with the "knowledge" the figure had implanted, it could be a powerful tool and weapon.

Even if the child wasn't capable of using the sword to it's fullest extent, the original gift was sufficient enough to work along with the brush and ink.

Now to guide young Natsume to the one who had the closest bloodline, and finally give her a place she could potentially call home.

 _The next morning..._

Natsume woke up and felt a strange unseen presence had been there.

Mostly because the first thing she saw was that the odd bracelets and anklets had disappeared, and in their place was a strange brush and gourd. Closer inspection revealed the gourd to be full of black ink.

For some reason, she "knew" if she were to add some of her own blood, the gourd and brush would be bound to her, allowing her to use it against the ayakashi that harassed her.

The thing that Natsume noticed the most was the fact that the invisible chains that had been weighing her down felt lightened. Almost as if they weren't there anymore.

She didn't know who or _what_ that presence was, but if they were able to keep the Vongola from claiming her like they did the first time then she was grateful for it.

Somehow, she had the feeling that running into Touko-san less than a week later was also because of the presence. She could only hope things turned out better.

Natsume stared at the figure in the checkered mask.

"Why me?" she asked.

As far as she knew, the seal was firmly in place and Aria was the next in line for the cursed artifact.

So why did Kawahira approach _her_ instead?

"You have the strongest flames in this generation. Now that Luce is gone, only two may possess this artifact."

Between Aria and Natsume, they were of roughly equal strength.

Natsume looked at the seemingly innocent item.

"If I take this... will the other person be spared?" she asked quietly.

She wasn't afraid of death. She knew in her heart she would likely die young like Reiko had. After all, there was a curse to her bloodline that had followed her for years.

She was just surprised Kawahira had noticed her strength in the first place, since she was supposed to be sealed.

Could the presence which sent Touko-san her way be the cause? Was it possible the seal was gone?

"If you take this pacifier, you will bear a great burden. However the other party who would have inherited it will be spared... I cannot say the same about any children they may have."

"Then I don't mind taking on the burden," said Natsume with a quiet smile.

She was nothing but a burden on others anyway. If taking on the Arcobaleno curse meant Aria would have a chance to live, then she would do it happily. After all, it wasn't like she had anyone who needed her like Aria did.

Kawahira took _one_ look at that smile, and was immediately reminded of Sepira. While he knew the girl before him was of Giotto's bloodline, there was something in her gaze that felt familiar.

"What family do you belong to?" he asked, curious.

Natsume took out the pendant she always kept under her shirt.

"Grandpa said this belonged to Grandma Reiko. But I still can't read it just yet!" she said cheerfully.

One look told Kawahira all he needed to know. No wonder the little one reminded him of Sepira...she was related to the Giglio Nero! He knew all of Giotto's descendants, which meant the lineage must be on the side of the mother.

Kawahira gently ruffled Natsume's head.

"Keep this safe, little one. It's your responsibility now."

 _In Italy..._

"What do you mean the pacifier wasn't passed on to you?" said Reborn in shock.

"That man appeared and took the pacifier before I could. He said there was another who qualified and accepted the burden," said Aria.

While she was grateful she wouldn't bear her mother's curse, this meant that an unknown now had the Sky pacifier. It was likely they had no idea what it was or the implications of what having it meant!

And that man was of no help...all he would say is that one of Luce's bloodline was the new Sky Arcobaleno.

"Do you have any idea who _does_ have it?" asked Verde.

Aria shook her head.

"All I can tell is that it's a young girl, but I can't _see_ her. I think something is blocking my visions from getting a good look at who it is."

"Is that possible?" asked Reborn.

"I couldn't see Checkerface chosing someone else, and up until now I've always seen the moment the curse is passed on to me. But the power required to block my sight this effectively... whoever or whatever it is, I don't think it's human. It's something else."

Either way, Aria planned to start digging into her mother's past. Checkerface had all but confirmed that the new Sky _was_ a member of the Giglio Nero and that she was connected to Luce. Which meant there had to be some documentation to prove it.

Even if the new Sky wasn't related to her by blood, Aria would have adopted her into the family anyway. After all, _everyone_ knew that the Sky Arcobaleno often came from their bloodline.


	2. Chapter 2

_Natsume, age fifteen_

She was running again, but at least this time she didn't feel quite so lonely. She just wished she knew what exactly Reiko had done to piss _this_ many ayakashi off that they would chase her so passionately!

Natsume threw out her right arm, and barrier appeared between her and the ayakashi after her.

It wouldn't last long, but it was enough to give her some distance.

Spotting some of her friends, Natsume crashed through the brush.

"Natsume? Were you running from something?" asked Ishimura.

"Just felt like running," lied Natsume smoothly. "Wasn't there a shrine nearby?"

"Yeah, just past the grove," he replied.

"Thanks," said Natsume, and she took off.

"Natsume is strange, sometimes," said Ishimura.

"Yeah, it really looked like he was being chased for a moment there."

Just then, a massive gust of wind blew past.

"Woah, that was pretty strong!"

"Yeah!"

Natsume looked behind her...the ayakashi were gaining. Suddenly one lunged at her, pinning her to a tree.

" _Reiko... there you are!"_ said the one-eyed ayakashi.

 _"Wait...better rip her tongue out so that she can't say our names!"_ said the other.

"Let...me...go!" said Natsume, lashing out with her fists. She gasped for much needed air, before making a beeline for the Tori gates she saw nearby.

Her foot caught something, causing her to trip past a rope barrier.

She looked up and saw a smaller shrine. Then she realized she had broken a kekkai and winced.

" _Ah... I can move again..."_

The shrine blew open, revealing... a maneki neko?

With a blast of power, the 'cat' broke out of the shrine.

" _You... you're not Natsume Reiko!"_

"Why do all these ayakashi keep asking about my grandmother?" said Natsume frustrated.

"Your grandmother?" said the cat shocked. "She used to live here, some time ago. She was quite a beautiful lady who could see strange things too. The humans didn't really understand her. She was alone. Always alone."

Natsume was quiet. It sounded a lot like she had more in common with Reiko than she ever did Giotto.

"By the way... have you heard of the Book of Friends?"

"That book of scribbles?" said Natsume blinking.

The cat's eyes gleamed as it disappeared.

Natsume waited a bit for the ayakashi to loose track of her... however she wondered why the fake cat was so interested in the odd book of scribbles Reiko had left behind.

"Natsume-chan! What happened to your uniform?" asked Touko in dismay.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Touko. I tripped and fell down a hill," lied Natsume.

Touko was the first person to realize that Natsume was a young girl, not a boy like everyone thought. Then again, she had been caught off guard when Natsume first started her period.

That had been an awkward time for everyone, but at least Touko allowed her to continue to wearing the boy's uniform. Though if her chest kept growing any bigger, then she might not be able to keep up the ruse for much longer.

"I wonder what that fake cat wants with this book of scribbles."

Natsume never did find out why the youkai were always so dead set about obtaining it.

"AH! So you do have the Book! Give it to me!" said the cat, who appeared out of nowhere.

Natsume dodged...only to turn and find the fake cat stuck in the screen.

"Get me out of here! But first give me the book!" said the cat, struggling to free itself.

"Natsume-chan, did you hear something?"

"Sorry aunt Touko, I just tripped a little!"

"Oh dear... you may be having another growth spurt, if you're being clumsy again," said Touko with sympathy.

Natsume turned to the fake cat.

"What do you want with Reiko's scribble book anyway?"

"Idiot! That book holds the power to completely control any youkai who's names have been written in it! Anything that happens to the paper will happen to the youkai as well! Reiko used it to make the ayakashi she bullied her subordinates!" scolded the cat.

"What?!" said Natsume in shock.

"Reiko took out her frustrations with the humans on the ayakashi, forcing them to play against her. If they lost, then she made them write their own names down to control them. That list of names is known as the Book of Friends. Now do you see why you should hand over the book? So long as it's in your possession you're in danger!" said the cat with a gleam in his eyes.

"Is your name written in here?"

"Of course not. Reiko's never beaten me once, but we still ran into each other occasionally. I just think it would be fun to have," said the cat dismissively.

Natsume looked at the book.

On one hand, it had given her no end of trouble. On the other hand, maybe if she gave back the names the youkai would leave her alone finally. After all, they were quite likely angry over having their names stolen and being forced to submit to a human.

There was also the fact that Natsume knew almost _nothing_ of Reiko. She kept to herself and even her grandfather couldn't tell her much of the woman.

"Is there anyway to return the names?" asked Natsume seriously.

The cat gave her an incredulous look.

"Why would you do a foolish thing like that?"

"I want to make amends for what Reiko did. And... I barely knew anything about my grandmother. I have the feeling if I returned the names I would learn more about her and what she was like."

"You're a strange, foolish human," said the cat. He rubbed his face with his paw. "I owe you for freeing me, so consider me your bodyguard...at least until I get bored."

Natsume felt something in the air.

"In that case, how about we come to an agreement?" asked Natsume smiling.

"What sort of agreement, brat?"

"You protect me while I return the names in the book... if I fail to complete that task before I die, then you get the rest. In exchange you protect me as my bodyguard."

The cat looked interested now.

"You would hand over the book when you die?"

"If I die, then there's no reason for it to remain in human hands. Besides, it's not like I'll live that long anyway. A few decades is a blink of an eye for a youkai, isn't it?"

The Sky Arcobaleno didn't live that long... not if they remained at their true age anyway. And she was tired of being targeted by ayakashi with no idea why. If making a deal for a book she had always dismissed as scribbles gained her a protector, then she had no problem with it.

The cat was silent, but he seemed to sense the heavy weight of air around them as well.

"Interesting. I agree to your terms," said the cat, holding out a paw. Natsume took it, and the deal was struck.

So you could imagine their surprise when the odd gourd full of ink began to glow brightly.

"This is..." said the cat in shock.

"You know what these are?"

"The divine brush of the gods! The one used by Amaterasu herself to awaken the divine constellations when the demon Orochi attempted to blacken the skies forever! Where did you get your hands on it?!"

"I woke up one morning and it was on my desk. Come to think of it, the box that I got from a very odd priestess disappeared around the same time."

"Box? What box?" said the cat.

"Well there was this minor festival and a priestess who was possessed by something was handing out small boxes. Everyone who opened theirs got a small charm, but she handed me one that felt different. She told me not to open it until I saw her again, and when I did the ribbon that was around it had come off on it's own."

The cat stared at him.

"Are you telling me that Amaterasu, mother of us all and origin of all that is good in this world visited you _personally_?" said the cat in shock.

"I have no idea which kami it was, just that they told me not to open the box until they allowed it," said Natsume.

Though that would explain why she had been found by the Fujiwara couple by a chance encounter. What were the odds of Touko visiting those relatives right as Natsume was about to be shipped off to a new family?

The cat had a headache.

"Brat, Amaterasu is the _only_ one who can hand out this particular set of divine tools. It's one of the few that can be safely used by humanity, provided they have the divine favor for it. The fact you have had it for a few years now means that you are favored by the Sun kami _personally_ ," said the cat.

"How do you know all this?"

"Several hundred years ago, there was a calamity as a human-turned-youkai attempted to swallow up all of Japan. His power was so great that the lone miko that could destroy him once and for all was almost unable to beat him. So Amaterasu donned the same form of a great white wolf with divine markings and sought out one of the youkai that was fighting the creature. In the process the wolf she had possessed mated with the stronger of the two inu-youkai and produced a child. However that child was more ayakashi than divine, and so was unable to join the ranks of the gods directly."

Natsume stared at him.

"You're that child, aren't you?" he guessed.

The cat gave him a flat look.

"If you're that powerful, then how did you end up in that cat statue?"

"I stole some sake from the table that belonged to one of the major kami, and as punishment Amaterasu assisted some random monk in sealing me."

"So...you were put in time out?" said Natsume.

"A demon as great as I am does _not_ get put in time out!" shouted the cat irate.

"You said your mother allowed a monk to seal you. In a shrine where it was unlikely anyone would find you except by accident."

The cat fumed.

"Natsume-chan, I'm going out for groceries! I'll be back in an hour," said Touko from downstairs.

"Okay!" said Natsume. She turned to the annoyed cat. "I never did get your name."

"I am the great Madara-sama! However as a special privilege you may address me as 'sensei'," said the cat.

"Yes, Nyanko-sensei."

Natsume was almost thankful to the two ayakashi that had been chasing her. If not for them, she never would have found the first genuinely loyal friend she could remember.

* * *

 _An hour later..._

"Touko-san...can I keep him?" asked Natsume.

"What a huge face for a cat! Of course you can keep him. What are you going to call him?" asked Touko.

In a way she was glad Natsume wanted to keep a stray cat she had found. It was first time the girl had shown any interest in something for herself.

The girl was entirely too selfless, and was always taking on burdens she didn't need to for the silliest of reasons.

"I'm going to call him Nyanko," said Natsume.

Touko smiled, and felt something in her heart lighten at her adopted child finally acting her age.

Nyanko pawed at the odd orange bauble tied to Natsume's waist.

"This is a cursed artifact. Why do you have it?"

"I know. And I took it as a safety net of sorts."

Because the Vongola couldn't really force the Sky Arcobaleno to act as their heir without really pissing off the others. Not even Timoteo wanted to get on the bad side of Reborn, much less the others.

"This thing will kill you. I can sense it siphoning off your power as we speak."

"I did say I wasn't going to live for very long, sensei. I knew before I accepted it that I wouldn't live past thirty, if that."

"You are a strange person. How can you accept your own death so easily?"

"I... I have always been a burden. I just wanted to be useful for once in my life and to help at least one person before the end. If taking on this curse means that someone else will be spared, then I'm fine with that," said Natsume quietly.

Nyanko was silent.

"You are nothing like your grandmother. She never would have accepted such a thing for such ridiculous reasons. She would have fought against it."

"I know how to remove it... I just can't. Not without something even worse befalling me. I would rather die free of that gilded cage than to willing accept that fate," said Natsume, eyes hardened with resolve.

Nyanko gave her an odd look.

"Natsume... you should realize that the burdens you bear are not your own. Only a fool would accept them for no reason like that."

Natsume's self-proclaimed bodyguard had to wonder what caused his charge to develop such a defeated attitude. And wonder what she could accomplish should she ever feel motivated to actually go against the fate she believed had been predetermined for her.


	3. Chapter 3

Natsume pulled at her shirt uncomfortably. Her chest was getting bigger again. She couldn't remember it being larger than a B cup before.

Touko noticed her discomfort.

"Oh dear. It seems we'll have to do some shopping soon. I had a feeling you were going under another growth spurt, Natsume-chan," said Touko with sympathy.

"I won't have to get the girl's uniform, will I?" asked Natsume.

She didn't like wearing skirts so much. Mainly because boys kept bothering her for dates that she wasn't remotely interested in. she didn't see what the big deal about having a boyfriend was anyway.

Natsume deliberately derailed the train of thought before it could reach a memory she would desperately like to forget.

It was her lack of experience in relationships that had caused that disaster and forced her to throw her mind back into her younger self.

"Let's wait until your growth spurt settles first before we make any decisions," said Touko leniently.

She thought the reason Natsume hated wearing the girl's uniform was because of the trauma that had caused her to be separated from her mother. It was a self-defense mechanism her mind had developed to protect her from any unwanted advances that could cause the memory to be triggered.

Touko and Shigure had been horrified to hear the story of why Natsume had been living with her grandfather, and had agreed to keep silent on her gender until she felt like divulging it herself. As far as the neighbors and the school needed to know, she was a boy.

Nyanko watched it all with a disinterested gaze. Unlike humans, ayakashi didn't really care much about silly things like gender bias.

"You hide your gender?" asked Nyanko later.

"I don't want to be bothered by others my age for dates. It's too troublesome, especially the older I got. Besides... before I moved around so much there wasn't much point trying to get close to anyone," said Natsume, working on her homework.

She kept silent on her ability to see things from the Fujiwara. They were the kindest family she had come across, and this place was the first one she dared to call home after her grandfather passed. They had no children and accepted that she kept quiet about what was troubling her.

There was simply something in the air in this place that made her relax and feel at home. And for that she would fight to keep staying her.

Here, she didn't feel like such a burden to others.

* * *

 _In Italy..._

"Ah, found it!"

Aria had been going over her mother's history with a fine-toothed comb, including the archives. It had taken her a while with how busy she was, but she had finally found what she was looking for.

Inside the journal of her grandfather was a lone picture of a young child who would have been a little older than her mother Luce was at the time the photo was taken.

"Natsume...Reiko?"

Aria took the journal out to read in proper lighting. What she found surprised her.

"Aria?" asked Gamma.

"Apparently grandfather had an affair with a woman shortly before my mother was born, except he didn't know the woman had gotten pregnant. By the time they reached out to him, my mother was already the heir and he didn't want to bring it to light considering how the mafia treated illegitimate children...that and this Reiko was a latent when he found her, so there wasn't any reason to drag her away from her home. He left one of those older pendants so if she ever went active the Vindice could direct her our way, but from what I can tell that never happened. Mom's journal indicated she got a notice of death when Reiko was only twenty-four."

Gamma winced.

"Did it say the cause?"

"She died from complications due to childbirth. She had a daughter, but Luce was tapped as the Sky Arcobaleno so she never had a chance to track her niece down. However considering the timing of it, there's a chance that either Reiko's daughter or grandchild might have the pacifier," said Aria. "I'm betting on her grandchild though. The vision I had was of someone too young to be her daughter."

Aria was downright cheerful. Finally, after searching for so long she had a proper lead to give to the others! Best of all, the new Arcobaleno was her cousin...she had thought she was the only one of Sepira's line left!

It was shortly before Aria went to bed that night that she had another vision.

 _Fon was walking among people in masks and odd creatures. He was about to hit the food table when his pacifier started glowing. Intriqued and wondering who it could be, he followed the glow to a young woman in her teens with a calico-colored cat on her shoulder that was quite fat._

 _Fon looked at her with a hidden excitement in his face._

 _It took a few seconds for the girl to spot him once he was within reach of her. She seemed quite startled to see him there._

 _Her companion noticed who she was looking at and smiled._

" _Master Fon, I wasn't expecting to see you at this gathering. Don't you normally operate out of China?" asked her companion._

" _Yes, but I was informed by a trusted friend of mine that I would find something worth my interest at this one,"_ _said Fon. "From what I can tell, she was understating things. It is good to see you, Natori-san."_

" _Natori-san, who is this?"_

" _My apologies, I forgot you don't run in the normal exorcist circles. This is Master Fon, an omnyouji from China who's also a grandmaster in Qigong. He specializes in breaking curses, among other things. I didn't think he would be here though," said Natori. He turned to Fon. "Master Fon, this is an associate of mine who occasionally helps out with my work. The fat cat is her bodyguard."_

" _Who are you calling a cat, gaki?" demanded the feline on the girl's shoulder._

 _"It's a pleasure to meet you miss," said Fon politely._

 _The girl smiled, and did something that shocked everyone around her._

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, master Feng," _she replied in perfect, if slightly rusty Mandarin._

 _Fon's eyes light up with delight._

"You speak Mandarin?" _he asked hopeful._

"I'm a little rusty, but I can hold a basic conversation in it," _she admitted._

" _I didn't know you speak Chinese," said Natori in surprise._

" _I speak a few languages. I just don't bother using it because there's no point. I'm just glad I tested out of English class, because I would have been very bored in it," admitted Natsume. "Though I wish my ability to read in them was a bit better."_

" _Is there something you wanted translated?" asked Fon. "I know a few languages myself, so I could at least pinpoint what you're looking for."_

 _Natsume reached around and pulled something from under her shirt._

" _I can narrow this down to something that uses romanji, but I can't really make out what it says. It belonged to my grandmother though," said Natsume easily._

(Aria's heart sped up with excitement from the dream. In the girl's hands was one of the older pendants from the Giglio Nero famiglia.)

 _Fon looked it over, before warm amusement filled his features._

 _"I know what this is and which family it belongs to. An associate of mine is the head of the family and she's been looking for her missing cousins for some time since she discovered her mother had a half-sister no one knew about."_

 _Natsume perked up at that._

Aria woke up, and smiled. It seemed the girl Natsume was looking for her missing family too. At least she knew who to contact in order to track the girl down and hopefully straighten things out.

She could wait until a decent hour though.

 _In China..._

Fon answered his cell phone, wondering why Aria was contacting his personal number.

"Hello?"

" _Fon, I just had a vision of the missing Sky Arcobaleno. She's a young woman in Japan, and you're going to be the first one to track her down."_

Fon blinked, twice.

"Japan?"

" _You meet her at a gathering, though I have no idea which kind. Just that she was with someone named Natori and he called you an 'omnyouji'. I'm not too sure what that is, but he will be bringing her to the gathering as an associate. Though I am curious why everyone was wearing masks."_

Fon perked up at that.

It sounded like Aria had seen him at an exorcist gathering, which he didn't really bother going to that often. Especially in Japan.

"Anything else I should know?"

" _There is one thing, but I'll leave it as a nice surprise for you. She'll have one of the older pendants with the emblem for the Giglio Nero famiglia on her that belonged to her grandmother though. Oh, and she looked to be roughly in her mid-teens,"_ said Aria as an after thought.

"I'll keep an ear out for those specific type of gatherings. If she's at one of them then odds are she might have the same Sight you do, or a varient of it," said Fon with a smile.

There was a chance the precognition that Aria and Luce had inherited was mutated or shifted into the Sight for the new Sky.

He wondered what the 'nice surprise' Aria mentioned was though.

* * *

 _In Japan..._

Natsume had a similar vision, and wanted to sigh in resigned annoyance. She knew she couldn't keep hiding forever, but at least it was Fon who would find her first as opposed to Reborn.

She would take whatever silver lining she could get, particularly since that meant there was a very _strong_ chance that she wouldn't end up with the Vongola this go around.

Natsume shuddered.

Anything was better than the nightmare of having to keep those nut jobs in line. The paperwork alone was positively hellish, and that was _before_ she had to deal with the arrogance and high-handed approach the Ninth generation had inflicted on her before the old bastard finally croaked.

It had taken two weeks before Coyote and the others disappeared to parts unknown after the funeral, and she had damn near thrown a party since it meant she didn't have to deal with their bitching and constant watch over her shoulder.

To be fair, she was pretty sure Xanxus threw a similar party in the Varia castle once he got over the shock of losing his adopted father. There were lakes of bad blood between them because Timoteo was just utterly incompetent as a father.

She had to smile slightly when Nyanko curled up a little closer to her. He was terrible at being nice, but at least when he tried she knew it was sincere.

Oh well...she could deal with that tomorrow. Though she had to wonder why she looked so at ease with a man she had never met before.

* * *

 _Two weeks later..._

Natsume had to stare at the man who helped her to avoid a nasty fall from tripping over him.

It was the man from her vision!

(Though she was still thrown for a loop that she had inherited Sepira's Sight on _top_ of whatever was in Giotto's bloodline. Looks like the Giglio Nero blood won out this go around...yay!)

There was something about him that drew her in. It took her a moment to figure out what it was, before it came to her like a kick to the gut.

Oh... the man was an Inactive Sun that was on the verge of going active, but had no idea of his full abilities. Considering how young he looked, he was still within the range of being able to safely awaken them. It didn't get dangerous until late twenties.

It took her a moment to place why she felt instantly calm around him and it had nothing to do with his inactive flames. Seeing the way he smiled sparked an 'old' memory of her last life, and someone who had a similar haircut and a whip.

She wanted to grin. The man before her reminded her of Dino-nii!

Mystery solved, she grabbed Nyanko-sensei's leash and continued on their walk. He had been getting a bit pudgy of late.

 _Later that night..._

Natsume's heart almost stopped when that shiki came into the room. Particularly when that man admitted to sending it. However learning he could see the same things she could made her want to cry in relief.

The only other people she could recall having the same gift were the Mist duo of Chrome and Mukuro, but they had only confided that to her in secret. Ken could sense them, but he could only see blurry images when he was using certain animal paths.

For some reason the name "Natori Shuichi" kept bugging the hell out of her, like she had heard it before.

It wasn't until she went to watch some of the movies she had somehow managed to bring with her in the Mist pocket Viper had shown her how to create in that alternate timeline that it hit her why she knew that name.

"Oh gods... I just ran into my favorite actor as a kid and didn't know it! At least now I know what the deal was with that tattoo that kept bugging me!" said Natsume in realization.

She had become fascinated with Natori Shuichi as a kid the first time around because of that weird lizard tattoo. It bothered the hell out of her because it moved around without any warning during the movie...and it happened in _every_ movie or show he was in...and the fact she was the only one who saw it. It drove her crazy because the thing was so visible and there was never any comments about it on the chat boards!

Any thoughts of going fangirl on him died when she remembered the slight relief in his eyes when she _didn't_ recognize him on sight. He could put on an act all he wanted, she could tell he was just happy to find someone like him who could see ayakashi and wasn't trying to use him.

She had to wonder what sort of trauma he suffered when he was younger to have that much animosity towards ayakashi. At least she got a new friend out of the deal and someone to commiserate about the hassle of being able to see things.

Then she remembered the vision she had and blushed slightly, glad no one was around.

From the way he was acting in that vision, it looked a lot like his flames were reaching out towards her own. Whether or not they were active or not was unclear, but she had the feeling he might be one of her _actual_ Elements rather than the ones forced on her last time. She had not appreciated having to suffer those idiots when there wasn't even a bond in place between them!


	4. Chapter 4

Natsume had to wonder how exactly a frog got stuck in a spiderweb like that. However her attention was swiftly diverted to the ayakashi devouring another in a tree.

" _You saw me... I'll eat you too!"_

Without thinking, she threw her left hand out in defense. Before the tendril could wrap around it, a bright light made of sunshine sprang forth.

Natsume fell backwards...and stared.

Around her wrists and ankles were something that looked a lot like prayer beads of sorts, swirling around in a circle.

" _You... how do you have the divine beads?!"_

Natsume grabbed her bag and started to run. She didn't want Touko-san to worry.

" _You can't escape from me, human!"_

The ayakashi lashed out and managed to nick her leg, though it screamed in pained fury as the beads protected her.

The damage was done however. Natsume found an odd mark on her leg where it hit.

When she got home, she was very startled to see Nyanko-sensei _shrink_ upon touching it.

"Sensei!" she said in alarm.

"You...how could you be so careless as to get cursed!"

"Sensei...what are the divine beads?"

Nyanko rubbed his face with his paw.

"I was wondering which of the divine weapons you were given to go along with the celestial brush. I should have guessed it was the beads. You're not suited to the swords, and the mirror is difficult to wield as a weapon."

"What do you mean?" asked Natsume.

"The ink that goes with the celestial brush is ordinary ink until bound to an owner through blood. The ink uses the owner's blood as a medium for divine energy, however it has a preset limit and can take several hours to recharge so it does not drain the owner dry. To that end, the brush and ink are often paired with a weapon of sorts. A mirror, prayer beads, or a sword. Each comes with up to a few evolutions that are more powerful than the last. Any more than that and they would be too strong for any human to have," said Nyanko.

"...This is sounding suspiciously like the same weapons and powers used in _Okami_ ," said Natsume after hearing that.

Nyanko looked at her oddly.

Natsume dug through her 'hammer space' as Spanner and Shōichi had once dubbed it, to pull out a game. She had _thought_ the whole thing sounded familiar, and now she knew why!

Nyanko stared at the game incredulous...not because of where Natsume had pulled it from (he was used to that) but because he quickly recognized the plotline and the form of the great white wolf Shiranui.

"Some human made a game out of the legend?!"

"Yeah, it's fairly popular too. The graphics are amazing, the storyline is easy enough to follow and the game play is addicting. Orochi was such a pain to defeat though..." said Natsume. She looked at her wrist with a speculative expression. "So I was given the prayer beads? That makes a lot of sense considering that was my preferred weapon when I played the game. I mean outside of that ink bullet attack I could never get the hang of the mirror weapons."

And her body type wasn't built for a sword. She knew that from experience.

Either way looking at the curse mark on her leg reminded her of what happened and that she needed to fix it.

It was bad enough she had agreed to act as the Sky Arcobaleno. She didn't want Aria stuck with the burden this early!

"Why not summon someone to act as your temporary bodyguard? Reiko liked to brag about how she could do it," said Nyanko.

"Sensei, are you sure?"

"In this state I cannot help you like normal. It's only temporary!" said Nyanko annoyed. "Why not summon Mizusu from before? You still have his name."

"You'll have to walk me through it," said Natsume.

* * *

 _A short while later..._

Natsume handed Hinoe a hankerchief. There was a sad smile on her face.

"It's nice to know there are ayakashi who cared enough about my grandmother that they would cry over her passing," said Natsume.

Hinoe gave her a silent, contemplative look.

"Why do you hide your gender? If I didn't know any better I would swear you were a man."

Natsume looked her dead in the eye, but there was no mistaking the shadows that haunted her gaze.

"Whenever I used to look in the mirror, I was only reminded of how much I look like my mother. I couldn't stand the thought of that, so decided to hide the fact I was a girl and distance myself from the pain she caused me by rejecting my Sight and blaming me for why her husband was never around."

Natsume was seriously considering letting her hair grow out a little. Now that she had a better idea of what Reiko looked like, she was starting to realize she resembled her grandmother more than her mother these days.

She would rather be reminded that she was Reiko's grandchild, rather than being bombarded with the knowledge she was Giotto's descendant.

As far as she was concerned, Giotto was an idiot and she was sick and tired of cleaning up after the mess he made.

Natsume smiled at Hinoe.

"That's why I'm glad Reiko at least had some who were on her side enough that they would weep for her passing. It means she wasn't as lonely as I thought."

"You are a strange child," said Hinoe. She paused to let out a cloud of smoke from her pipe. "But I don't think that's a bad thing."

"Anyway, is there anything you can do about this?" asked Natsume, pulling off the bandages on her leg. "Ah...it got bigger."

Hinoe examined it with an odd expression on her face.

"That's the Five Day Mark...however this one is very weak. Something must have interfered when it was placed. So long as you can avoid the youkai who cast it or the shadow it sends, it'll go away on it's own."

"That's good," said Natsume with relief.

"What's strange is that something was able to interfere with it. Usually this attaches itself pretty firmly once it latches on to it's prey, especially humans."

"What does the five day mark do?" asked Natsume.

"It draws from the victim's life force to spread the mark. It's a method of marking for stationary youkai."

"...What would happen if there was already something draining on the life force of the victim, or their energy was completely incompatible for the youkai in question?" asked Natsume, thinking of the pacifier around her waist.

It was much easier to hide that way, though she had found she could move the pacifier around so long as she maintained a steady stream of flames into it. She just couldn't take it off.

"That might do it, but I highly doubt it."

"What about divine protection from one of the greater kami?" piped up Nyanko.

"That sounds far more likely," said Hinoe. She stared at Natsume.

"I may have accidentally gained the favor of Amaterasu-no-kami..." admitted Natsume.

"How do you 'accidentally' earn the favor of _her_?" asked Hinoe. Though it would explain why the mark was so weak.

"She was possessing a priestess and handing out charms to the humans. When I approached her, I was given a box and told not to open it. A few year later the ribbon came undone on it's own," admitted Natsume.

Hinoe stared at her in amazement. Normally humans would open the box early, generally out of curiosity. It was rare to find one who actually _honored_ a promise given like that!

No wonder Natsume was favored.

"She favored Natsume enough to give her the Divine Beads as well as the brush," commented Nyanko.

"...If you have those then you might be able to make a servant that can banish whatever idiot was willing to piss off the kami by marking you as it's next meal. The charm needed to make them requires special tools, and those definitely qualify."

"Can you show me how?" asked Natsume hopefully. Aside from practicing their skills, she didn't really use the brush much.

Hinoe blew out some more smoke from her pipe.

"I can," she replied. "However I want proof you really have the divine beads before I agree to anything."

Natsume's face blanked. She had no idea how to bring the beads out.

Nyanko smirked. Time to needle his charge a bit until she started producing results.

Natsume looked at her wrist. Before it had come out on instinct, and it took her a moment to remember why it had felt so familiar.

Ah...now she remembered. It felt _exactly_ the same way bringing out her gloves did. Except the feeling was slightly different, and she didn't have the need to prove anything to people who only wanted a pawn.

Focusing on that same desire to be stronger, to protect those precious to her, Natsume focused on _what_ she wanted to protect and why she needed the power to do it.

Images of the life she had made in the Fujiwara's home. Of the friends she had made and even Nyanko-sensei.

Of the pain and suffering she had managed to leave behind and the desire to never, ever go through that again.

Orange fire blazed brightly, before turning into tiny foxfires around her wrists and ankles. Those fox-fires solidified into beads held together by an unseen string and hovered in a rotating circle that never touched Natsume's skin once. It reminded her of an anime she saw once, though she couldn't recall what the title was.

Hinoe's eyes looked at the divine beads in surprise, before her expression schooled itself.

"You're rather good at that. If you could bring those out then how did that youkai manage to mark you?"

"Because I didn't have a reason to fight back," said Natsume simply. "I don't particularly enjoy fighting, but I will if I need to in order to keep my peaceful life the way it is."

Nyanko observed the way the flames flowed between the prayer beads.

"You're unusually skilled at channeling your spiritual energy."

Natsume looked down at the shrunk Nyanko.

"But I'm not using my spiritual energy. I'm just channeling my flames the way I normally do," she said confused. Then something occurred to her. "Then again flames _are_ a manifestation of the soul...so maybe that's why Reiko was so strong. It's possible her Latent flames manifested as spiritual energy instead since she didn't know how to use them."

Natsume knew how strong Luce had been...the idea that Reiko could have had Latent flames that manifested in an odd way that couldn't be detected by the Vindice was hardly farfetched.

"Natsume?" said Nyanko.

"It's nothing. How do I create a charm to drive this spirit back?" asked Natsume. Her face held an earnest, kind expression.

Hinoe observed the girl with interest. She looked so much like Reiko, but they couldn't be more different. There had always been an aloof, cloudy feel to Reiko. As if she was drifting along to her own whims and didn't care what the world thought of her, even as she made the Book of Friends.

Natsume, though... she felt like the sky. Broad and expansive with no end in sight, with clouds that formed interesting and amusing shapes. The sort of sky you could fall into and feel nothing but peace and acceptance while your worries drifted away into nothing.

Hinoe smiled lightly, as she took another hit off her pipe.

"Okay, I'll show you."

" _Servant of Light, banisher of darkness... I call upon thee to dwell within this vessel and vanquish that which would cause one harm."_

Natsume blew into the small crane she had folded...it was the only one she could make in time, since she was out of practice when it came to origami.

The crane light up as if hit by pure sunlight, and the second it went active, the shadow that had marked Natsume screamed in agony.

Everywhere the light touched, the shadow _burned_ , until nothing was left except wisps that would dissipate by morning.

Hinoe and Nyanko watched the entire thing with amazement.

It was a good thing Natsume actually favored ayakashi more than most exorcists...with that sort of power she could easily seal or kill even a high ranking youkai causing trouble!

Her passive behavior with their antics was suddenly very relieving since it meant she would never turn that sort of power against them. Not without cause anyway.

"Impressive, Natsume-dono. I never expected you to weild such power that well," said Mizusu.

"You were the one who opened that path, weren't you?" said Natsume calmly. The fact she couldn't find it a second time, never mind the rather familiar frog she rescued, said as much.

"I wanted to see if you were worthy of keeping my name," admitted Mizusu.

"Mizusu, you..." started Nyanko outraged.

"What did you think?" asked Natsume with a smile. She had been subjected to far worse from humans to really care about such an elaborate trick. Besides, considering the power she held over the ayakashi before her because she held his true name (and the fact she kept forgetting to return it), she couldn't blame him for devising a test.

"Hmph. Originally I believed you were unworthy of it. Now I am not so sure. You show weakness to ayakashi without a second thought, despite the fact it will make them come after you...and yet you hold enough power to enforce your will upon them," said Mizusu. "You are quite the contradiction compared to how Reiko used to act."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Natsume, still smiling.

"Natsume, if you ever wish to abandon Madara, I am always free to act as your bodyguard," said Mizusu.

"Don't get cocky you stupid cow! The book is mine!" shouted Madara from Natsume's shoulder.

"If you ever get tired of lying to the humans, you can always come find me. I have no problem if you call upon me as well," said Hinoe with a smile.

The two disappeared into the mists.

"Hmph. Arrogant fools. Like I would ever hand you over to them!" said Nyanko annoyed.

Natsume smiled, then sat down. She was exhausted...it had been far too long since she used so much of her flames, and this was the first time she had used them for an exorcism of all things.

Hopefully Touko wouldn't be too angry about her little white lie about staying at Tanuma's house.


	5. Chapter 5

Natsume snuggled into her pillow...only to realize it was a grumpy Nyanko. It took her a few seconds even more to register the familiar twinge in her gut as she sighed.

Good thing she had restocked her supplies yesterday. Then again she kept almost paranoid track of her schedule for a good reason.

Touko, bless her, took _one_ look at Natsume's expression and silently handed her something chocolate for breakfast.

"There's a festival today," commented Shiguru, wisely not saying a word about Natsume's "monthly issue".

Natsume perked up at that.

"What time?"

"It should start sometime around five," said Shiguru smiling.

"And with that in mind..." said Touko with a certain gleam in her eyes that Natsume had learned to dread. She reached down and pulled out a box. "I found this in the attic. It should fit you well enough."

Natsume opened it up to reveal an outfit that was slightly old fashioned, but wasn't too 'feminine' that she would refuse to wear it outright. Seeing the look in Touko's eyes, Natsume held back a sigh.

There was no way she was getting out of this... Touko knew all too well that Natsume had zero resistence against her puppy eyes, especially when it came to dressing her up as a proper girl.

Considering she didn't want anyone to recognize her, she would have to drag out the wig again.

"I'll go get changed," sighed Natsume, once she finished breakfast.

Touko beamed with happiness. She understood _why_ Natsume hated dressing like a girl, but that didn't stop her from using minor emotional blackmail so that she would anyway.

Nyanko was quite curious as to what Natsume would look like as an actual woman. She was so good at disguising her gender he often forgot she wasn't a man.

The effect was pretty impressive. If he didn't know any better he would swear he was looking at Reiko with shorter hair. It went down to her neck and curled slightly, but that was it.

"What do you think?" asked Touko eagerly.

Natsume did the usual twirl, causing Touko to beam at her.

"It's not uncomfortable," she admitted. While she wasn't that fond of skirts, the outfit fit her general preferences well enough that she wouldn't mind wearing it occasionally.

"I wore something similar to that when I was your age," said Touko. "I've had that in the attic for ages, so you can have it now."

Natsume nodded, and settled in to finish her breakfast. She just _knew_ Nyanko-sensei was going to comment once they were out of earshot of the Fujiwaras.

 _A short time later..._

"You look different in a skirt. Almost like a proper female," commented Nyanko.

"...If I wasn't a tomboy in general I _might_ be offended by that," said Natsume.

"If I didn't know any better, I would have mistaken you for Reiko," said Nyanko.

"This was the only wig within my price range, and the only other one was more of a red color. I just wish it were slightly longer...my mother wears her hair like this," said Natsume, tugging at the wig slightly with a sigh.

"You speak as if she's still alive."

"She is. So is my father," said Natsume darkly. "I deliberately insured that I wouldn't return to that place for good reason. As far as the family believes, I'm an orphan and I have no desire to correct that...especially since the Fujiwara couple officially adopted me into their family after a year and a half living with them."

Touko and Shigure had no children, but they were happy enough adopting Natsume into their family and she was thrilled to finally be rid of the name "Sawada". As far as the school and public records were concerned, her name was Natsume Fujiwara.

Natsume shuddered when a thought occurred to her.

"Thank the gods Touko-san isn't much into make-up..."

Natsume remembered the hell she had to go through because Haru _loved_ dressing up for the special mafia parties and insisted they do the whole package...make-up included. Worse, she had dragged Kyoko into it which meant there was no escape unless Hana was visiting.

There was a reason Natsume had gravitated towards Hana. She needed the sensible solidarity to help defend her against the ill-thought-out enthusiasm of Kyoko and Haru.

She had a limited knowledge of how to use make-up, but the most she ever bothered with was shiny lip balm. At least that served some practical purpose.

* * *

Tanuma spotted Natsume's cat, and tried to wake it up. It had somehow managed to crash into him out of nowhere.

"Ponta. Hey Ponta," he said, poking at it.

"It's Nyanko-sensei, idiot!" shouted the cat, nailing him in the chin.

Tanuma didn't see the girl from behind him, though he definitely took notice when she clobbered the cat before he could attack him again.

"Sensei, you're being annoying."

"How did you manage to get separated from me? It was a simple path!" shouted Nyanko.

"Considering you slipped down that hill, I'd say it's a good thing I didn't take the path you mentioned," snarked the girl.

There was something oddly familiar about her.

She almost looked like Natsume, except as far as he knew the other teen wasn't a cross-dresser. Not that there was anything wrong with that, since it could be considered an outlet of sorts.

"Are you Natsume's cousin?" he asked.

She stared at him. Nyanko, damn him, started howling.

"This is what you get for being such a tomboy all the time!"

Natsume hit him again.

"No, I just hate being bothered for dates when I'm not interested. Touko knows how to blackmail me into outfits that remind people of my actual gender," sighed Natsume. She pulled out her wallet and took something out.

It took Tanuma a moment to realize it was a school ID card. Specifically _his_ school.

There, in clear print, was the name "Natsume Fujiwara" along with Natsume's class and year. However his attention was firmly on the part where gender was circled in clear black ink.

"You're a girl?" he said in absolute shock.

Natsume looked really uncomfortable.

"I hate being reminded that I'm a girl. I prefer being a tomboy because people leave me alone and I don't get mistaken as my grandmother so much. Some of the adults were really rude when they made the connection, since she used to live in the area. I've never seen Touko so mad when she heard some of their comments."

Tanuma stared at her, mentally memorizing the picture of Natsume in female clothing. He had to hide the blush that came to him because she was ridiculously cute and he could completely understand why she found it "bothersome" dressing as a girl because he had no doubt the other boys would keep trying to date her.

And with all the headaches she got from the youkai in the area, he sincerely doubted any of their classmates would ever fully understand what she went through.

"Your secret is safe with me," he said with an understanding smile.

"I don't mind if you tell people I'm Natsume's cousin, though if anyone asks you can say they just missed seeing me," said Natsume quietly.

The Fujiwara would be going and knew her secret anyway, so they were unlikely to comment on the deception.

 _Some time later..._

It was a very surreal night for them both. Natsume seriously had no idea how effective her smiles were on guys (and quite a few girls), and Tanuma kept having to deflect where her "cousin" was the entire night, the poor guy. Of course it had nothing compared to the reaction Hinoe had when they realized who the "Reiko-look-alike" was.

Natsume bore her glomp with amused tolerance. Nyanko would not stop laughing his ass off about it, the jerk.

It felt really strange when the baby kitsune who reminded her painfully of a more innocent Fuuta showed up. It was almost like they were taking their kid around, though the little fox had simply used his nose to figure out who she was in an instant.

He was seriously too cute for words, in her opinion. At least Hiiragi kept their silence on the fact she was a girl from Natori.

Then again they were a youkai. It was likely Hiiragi had no idea (or didn't care) about the impact that particular tidbit would have on the exorcist if he had known.

It was a rather fun time, even if Natsume had a headache explaining her 'cousin' lived in a rather rural area and that her parents wouldn't even let her own a cell phone.

As it was, the Fujiwara were still mystified where _her_ phone came from because they didn't get it for her (it looked too new and expensive for their budget). At least she was able to use her limited hacking skills to steal one of the Vongola-affiliated satellites to get free, almost world-wide service. She would _die_ without her internet fix!

Besides, it wasn't like CEDEF kept track of the things and she had the code written to make it look like it was permanently disabled if accessed from the official servers on earth.

Though the look on Tanuma's face when she gave him her personal cell number... at least he wouldn't be one of those annoying fanboys that would get in her face at any opportunity. Was it really that shocking to see her in a skirt and actually looking like a girl?

(Natsume would remain quite oblivious to the effect her genuine smiles had on others for quite some time.)

* * *

Aria was outright furious as her investigators started to uncover the location of her little cousin. It hadn't taken long for a rather disturbing story to pop up.

Apparently Natsume's father brought someone to his house one day during a visit and the guest had gone into her room. Her mother refused to believe the story, and had eventually sent her away because of the teachers becoming suspicious about the sudden drop in grades.

Needless to say she was quick to abuse her Sight to find out who the soon-to-be-dead man was.

What she found was almost as bad, but she was still pissed.

"What did you see?" asked Fon with concern. Ever since Aria contacted him he had taken to visiting more so that he would know when he needed to visit Japan.

"Apparently the 'story' Natsume told her relatives wasn't the complete truth, just a tweaked version of what happened."

Fon relaxed slightly at that.

"From what I saw, she went active as a child, and her _father_ (Aria spat out the word like a vile curse) decided he would rather seal her flames instead of train her... _for her safety_. And his don agreed to do it, without a second thought. She wasn't even six from what I saw!" fumed Aria.

Fon winced. That was bad.

"Do I dare ask who they were?"

"Iemitsu Sawada and Timoteo Vongola."

"She's a Vongola?" he said in shock.

"Considering the damage they did to her, I don't care what Iemitsu or that old fart will try to claim. The second she found that pendant and took on the pacifier she became one of my family. Besides, their track record of late leaves much to be desired."

"Wait...if she was sealed then how..."

"You said something about there being spirits over in Japan that only certain people can see, right? Maybe she got one of them to help her remove it," said Aria.

Fon paused.

"That...might be possible. I know that certain kami are fond of small children and sealing her flames so soon after going active would cause a lot of damage. The possibility one decided to remove it isn't an uncommon... especially if she has the Sight."

"You mean she might have the same gift I do?"

"Considering what I know of Natsume Reiko, I'm almost positive she has some form of it. At the very least I believe Reiko may have been a Cloud flame that never went active...a lot of her behavior certain points in that direction and she could have been internally propagating her spiritual powers."

It certainly explained why a declining family of shamans suddenly gave birth to an especially powerful one in the form of Reiko.

Aria perked up hearing that.

"You know about Reiko?"

"I know of her mother's side of the family, since you would know far more than I would about the father. However Reiko came from a minor family of shamans with a minor bit of power behind them... they were particularly good at seals and pacts with the spirits. They were on the verge of decline when Reiko was born, though from what I understand her mother died rather young when Reiko was five in order to seal a particularly vicious spirit."

Fon had a sudden idea how to earn the favor of the new Sky Arcobaleno. As he recalled, the family sealed up their spells and other equipment where the 'dormant' members of the family couldn't find it. He highly doubted Reiko would have known about it.

It shouldn't be too hard to track down where they hid that cache.

"Want some help?" asked Aria hopefully.

Fon chuckled.

"Considering what I plan to track down, it may take some time," said Fon.

He could tell by the look in Aria's eyes that she was already planning to adopt the younger girl as a sister. At the very least if the younger Sky proved capable she would make her the heir of the Giglio Nero family (thus cutting off any chance the Vongola had to claim her) and give Yuni a new aunt.

She just hoped the other girl would be amicable towards the idea.


	6. Chapter 6

Natsume had no idea what to think when Natori offered to take her to a hot spring for a little vacation. She had never been to one, and at least she knew he didn't have any ulterior motives like Reborn would have.

Though she had to quickly grab her allergy medication when she saw what he was planning to give to Touko as a peace offering for borrowing her for a day or two.

"AHCHOO!"

Natori took a moment to register Natsume was sneezing, rather violently, before he realized what was going on.

"You're allergic to roses?" he asked.

Natsume nodded, and wished the medication would kick in already.

The Fujiwara had found out the hard way she was allergic when Shiguru brought home some roses one day and set off a sneezing attack.

"I'll be fine once the medication kicks in," said Natsume, though she kept her distance.

"Sorry about that. If I had known you were allergic I would have picked something else," said Natori.

"It's not something that comes up often and I always have my medication stocked in case I _do_ come into contact with it. Knowing Touko she'll just put it in Shiguru's study or her bedroom, since it only acts up if I come within ten feet of them," said Natsume.

Touko did look slightly concerned when she looked at Natsume, but relaxed when she realized the girl had already taken her medication. She was also rather pleased when Natsume made sure to grab her to-go bag that was just big enough for Nyanko to ride in.

It was...nice. Almost relaxing traveling with Natori. His Sun Flames were very soothing to be around, unlike Ryohei. While they were reaching out for her own, they weren't trying to be pushy about it.

It was almost like having Reborn back, before things fell apart. Except without the lingering bitterness and pain that the hit man had in his soul.

Though she would _not_ admit to actually giggling at the expression on Natori's face when he register not only what she was wearing but _why_ she was wearing it.

"Natsume... you're a girl?"

This was why she had brought her water-proof camera that had been a present from Shiguru last year for her birthday...Natori barely reacted to the 'click' or the brief flash.

"Hiiragi saw me during the festival when they were watching the little fox. I just asked them not to mention it," said Natsume. "Besides...this isn't the first time I've stayed in the same room with boys. It's not like the teachers ever realized my gender during those school trips."

Natori twitched at that and gave Hiiragi a Look.

"Why do you hide it?" he asked finally, glad that he had decided to wear swim shorts in case Natsume was body concious. It would have been _unspeakably_ awkward if he hadn't right now.

"It's difficult to explain. But it mostly boils down to the fact I hate being bothered by my classmates for dates. It's not like any of them would have understood," said Natsume. Which was one of the big reasons she did it. She pouted though. "Touko-san always has way too much fun when she can trick me into dressing up though."

"I can bet," chuckled Natori.

The awkwardness lasted for all of five more minutes, before Natori figured out that Natsume genuinely _did not_ care about being in a hot spring with a man at least five years older than her. He had to wonder if she had ever been given the Talk, if she was this cavalier about being around others.

Then again, those with their abilities did experience a major disconnect with others when they acknowledged them and with how strong Natsume's power was, she likely didn't have many chances to actually relax around others. Not to mention that comment about sharing a room with several boys during school trips... how long had she been hiding as a boy?

During dinner, Natori voiced that very question.

"Since I was twelve, I think? I know Touko-san was very surprised when she found out I was a girl considering she had already ordered the boy's uniform. By that point some of the people she had tea with had already made some rather unflattering comments about my grandmother the few times Touko tried to get me to wear girl's clothing, so she dropped the idea about making me wear the correct uniform. She was _not_ happy about what they said about me and how much I took after Reiko," said Natsume after a moment. "So long as none of the teachers raised a fuss, the Fujiwara didn't say anything about it and everyone just assumes I'm a boy because I prefer to dress like one."

"...And the school trips?"

"According to Tanuma, when he ran into me by accident during the festival, there's some unspoken rule to avoid talking about anything too lewd around me. Why, I have no idea, but I'm glad I don't have to listen to it," shrugged Natsume. "Besides, if anyone _had_ tried something with me during those trips I would have punched them the same way I would have an ayakashi, so it never came up."

Natori had a minor headache. However it definitely confirmed his suspicions that Natsume either didn't know what sex was about, or she openly had no interest in it.

She would likely react badly if a boy tried to kiss her without any warning, much less anything intimate.

"Besides...at least with pants I don't have to worry about flashing others, much less tripping over the fabric," said Natsume.

Natori snorted at that. Just to be on the safe side, he continued to treat Natsume like he would another boy, which he could sense she appreciated.

As they laid down in the futons, Natori casually commented "You know if you're ever tired of lying to others, my door is always open."

Natsume was silent, before she said something that would set the tone for the conversation that would follow.

"Lying to others and to ourselves is an inherited trait, on both sides unfortunately. However unlike my parents I don't feel like deluding myself about how reality works."

Natori sat up and looked at where Natsume was lying down on her side, facing the window.

"Your...parents?"

"My mother has the sight too, but she rejected it so strongly that she's become utterly delusional about what's really going on. And my father is a narcissitic, arrogant jackass who thinks he has the right to treat us like toys he can simply put upon a shelf whenever it suits him," said Natsume bitterly.

Natori stared at her in shock.

"Your parents are alive?" he half-asked.

"My mother lives in Namimori, and my father is in Italy. I made very certain none of my grandfather's relatives would consider sending me back to that house when he died with a small alteration of what happened when I was five," said Natsume flatly. "My mother was all too happy to send me away after that visit, because she couldn't stand the idea of confronting the fact she had inherited Reiko's sight. Not when it meant abandoning her 'nice, normal' life she had built. She refused to acknowledge the fact she had married a faithless man who wouldn't honor his marriage vows and considered his work far more important than his family."

Natori was silent. The sad thing was that he could fully believe it.. he knew of a few people who had the sight but denied the truth to the point they would willfully turn a blind eye to what they had. If they were lucky, then the ayakashi would leave them alone because they refused to acknowledge them.

However most weren't lucky, and reacted quite badly when reality came crashing down around their heads.

He knew how perceptive children could be, and if Natsume had been as young as she claimed, then it didn't surprise him in the least she had lied to avoid returning. Being shipped from home to home was a far healthier alternative to what her mother was doing.

Natori gently put his hand on her shoulder, just to convey his silent support. He wouldn't mention this to the Fujiwara, but he was also making it clear that his door was still open. He took it as as good sign when he felt how tightly Natsume clutched it for a moment, before letting go.

"What was your name? Before you were adopted I mean?" he asked finally.

"...Tsume. Tsume Sawada. I was rather happy when grandfather decided to call me Natsume instead, since it meant I had a chance to start fresh and none of his relatives knew it was a nickname in the first place. I think he was mostly playing off the fact that my grandmother's maiden name was Natsume though."

Natori blinked. Was it possible Natsume was related to _those_ Natsume, the shaman clan? Considering some of the stories he heard when he started asking about Reiko, there was a chance she was.

* * *

 _Later that night_

"...Natsume, exactly how did you earn the favor of such a strong ayakashi?" asked Natori, feeling the need to twitch.

"I made a bridge with a plank of wood?" said Natsume. It had taken her a moment to recognize the ayakashi from earlier, mostly because of the eyes. "His palanquin was being carried by really small spirits, and they couldn't go around a puddle so I made a bridge for them. You rarely hear stories of people suffering bad ends for something like that so I didn't think anything of it."

Natori was silent, though he did concede her point. Usually when someone performs a small act like that for a spirit, they're highly inclined to return the favor within reason.

"How much do you know of folklore?" he asked.

Natsume gave him a flat, unimpressed look.

"Considering how strong my sight is, do you _really_ think I wouldn't read up on folklore and general stories about the spiritual side of things just as a precaution? There's a reason I'm on good terms with most ayakashi and that's because I make a point to honor the old ways," deadpanned Natsume.

That and it had been a nice distraction from her hellish paperwork while she was in Italy. The internet was _rife_ with stories of the supernatural and about spirits that went back hundreds of years. And that was just the documented cases!

Reading about them was just common sense, especially when she realized she had successfully managed to return to her younger self. The last thing she wanted to do was end up cursed because she failed to learn from the mistakes of others.

Such as the importance of keeping promises to spirits and especially kami.

As they headed back to the place Natsume had claimed as her home, Natori decided to change the subject.

"You know I got an interesting proposal a week ago. It's a new movie that's supposed to come out next year."

"What's the title?" asked Natsume politely, happy to change the subject.

There had been one too many shocking revelations on this trip, but she was glad they were out in the open, just a little.

The second Natori said the title, Natsume perked up. Natori chuckled at her reaction, unaware of the reason for it.

Then again he had no idea that it was that _same_ movie which had sparked endless debate over whether or not the Decimo was losing it, to see a moving tattoo on the actor's face during the film.

Once she dropped the subject, she had really gotten into Natori's work as an actor, which sparked her first and so far _only_ crush. She had always been too scared of Hibari (and later scared _for_ him) to develop any feelings towards the Cloud. Not that she would acknowledge any feelings towards Natori.

She never wanted to deal with Reborn's inevitable reaction to that, let alone the overprotective way Gokudera bit off the heads of anyone who tried to show an interest in her as a woman.

At some point she had sworn off romance entirely and just acknowledged the fact she would likely die alone.

"Would you like to come see it being made? I can't promise you would be in it, but I can guarantee that you can watch how it's done."

"Really?" said Natsume with open interest.

"Just be sure to keep your kitty from causing trouble. Since you generally prefer to dress as a boy anyway, I doubt my manager would care if I claimed you were a possible apprentice or understudy. Besides, you act _nothing_ like my usual fans," he said.

Natsume was so blasé about his acting and popularity that it was a refreshing change of pace. To her, he wasn't some moderately famous actor or exorcist. He was just Natori, her friend.

So the chance to let her watch how movies were made was a small treat that they could both enjoy.

Natori tried very, very hard to avoid thinking about how cute Natsume looked when she smiled at him shyly when he suggested it, or the way she brightened up at the idea of seeing him at work. Now that he was aware of her gender, his mind started to go to places he had a feeling she wasn't comfortable with just yet.

If she was open to the idea, then he would consider starting something. But he knew he would have to keep it at a slow place so as not to chase her off.

At least the age difference between them wasn't _too_ bad...

* * *

 _In Italy_

Aria had a sudden vision while she was doing paperwork in her study. It was of her adorable little cousin with a man a little older than her. She recognized him as "Natori" from her previous vision, and wondered what the subject of this one would be.

It seemed to be from roughly the same time line as the one she had before, which had allowed them to narrow down when Fon would find her cousin.

Aria very nearly blushed when she realized what was going on.

Natori was approaching Natsume, and it was pretty clear what his intentions were. However unlike most men, he made his plan clear before he did anything. The blush Natsume gave when he kissed her on the lips, rather lightly at that, was absolutely adorable. However most telling was the fact she didn't try to push him away or deter him from it.

So her little cousin had a preference for older men? That was amusing to know. More interesting was how strongly she blushed afterwards, which made Aria wonder exactly how much experience with romance the girl had before this.

From the way she reacted to a simple kiss, Aria was going to put her money on "Little to nonexistent".

She wanted to cackle...it was always amusing watching teenagers experience their first romance, and it was clear she was partial to the older man from what she saw.

"Mama's acting funny again," said Yuni.

"She's taking Uncle Reborn's lessons in causing chaos to heart again," said Gamma, before he picked up his daughter.

He may not have met Aria's cousin yet, but when he did he fully planned to heartily thank the girl for what she did. If she hadn't accepted the pacifier, then he would have to constantly worry about his wife dying young from the cursed artifact. This way Aria had a chance to see Yuni grow up, even if there was still a chance she would end up cursed when her daughter was a little older.

At least she was given a reprieve from having to fuel the cursed thing and to be a proper mother to Yuni.


	7. Chapter 7

Mismatched eyes gazed at the whole debacle with dark amusement. Ever since he suddenly woke up in his much younger body, inside those accursed labs, Mukuro had _known_ the Decimo had done something. And being one of the few truly bonded to her, he had been dragged along for the ride.

Dark glee had awakened in him at being able to make the scientists truly suffer for what they had done. For being able to rescue his brothers (Tsume had hit him hard when he kept calling them minions) again, except more efficiently this time.

Rather than allow the same mistake that had gotten them arrested to happen twice, Mukuro lead them straight to Namimori in the hopes of finding his Sky.

That was when things went sideways.

Tsume was not only missing, but any attempts to locate her were rendered impossible. It was as if she had disappeared off the face of the earth.

With no chance of finding her in a reasonable time frame, he settled for the next best thing.

And wouldn't you know it, his bond with his dear Chrome had allowed her to follow them as well? She welcomed the trio with a smile, and between the two of them they managed to manipulate her hateful mother and cruel stepfather into an uneasy sort of truce.

In other words, "Nagi's" mother would turn a blind eye to the fact they existed in exchange for her "daughter" leaving her and her husband alone. Considering the sheer terror his adorable little Chrome inflicted on the foolish woman, it was far better than she deserved for the suffering she put her child through.

So when they heard via Nagi's mother that a certain movie was about to be made, well, Chrome 'convinced' the woman to allow them to join her.

Mostly because they wanted to confirm something their Boss and Sky had kept insisting was real. It would cheer her up to know she wasn't actually crazy and that the man really _did_ have some sort of moving lizard tattoo.

* * *

Natsume was miserable. For some _inane_ reason, Natori's fans sent several bouquets of roses and they all ended up outside his trailer.

Hiiragi was keeping watch over her until the shooting started again, and Natsume could only pray her medication kicked in before then.

So when someone came in to alert her that the shoot was about to start up again, Natsume very nearly bolted up from shock.

She turned to look at the tiny figure who was staring at her with equal shock.

"Bossu?"

"Chrome?!" squeaked Natsume in disbelief. She reached out her senses, before swiftly pulling them back before 'he' sensed her presence. An evil grin came upon her face. "Please tell me Mukuro is outside."

Chrome nodded.

Natsume felt the urge to cackle...and silently blamed Reborn for turning her into a bit of a troll when the opportunity presented itself.

"Want to help me prank Mukuro?"

Chrome nodded happily.

"Want me to make a bubble around the roses outside, bossu?" asked Chrome.

Natsume almost wept with relief. This was why she was happy to have her Mists back, or she would anyway.

"Why are you two here anyway?"

"We wanted to ask about the tattoo Natori-san has. Mother...she was called and asked to be a minor but important side character."

Well that explained why Chrome always made that face when she saw the movie.

Spotting Mukuro, Natsume had to school her face so as to keep Natori from ruining her prank.

"Kufufufu...so it's not actually a tattoo, but a youkai that's under your skin?" said Mukuro with open interest.

Natsume was grinning evilly.

"This coming from the pineapple who _insists_ that his playfights aren't just foreplay for his Skylark boyfriend?" she drawled.

"For the last time my hair does _not_ look like a pineapple and I am not dating that damn Cloud!" snarled Mukuro, before his mind registered what had been said, and more importantly who had said it. He turned to face a darkly amused Natsume in shock.

"I found Bossu in Natori-san's trailer. Some poor fool put several roses around the place," said Chrome.

Natsume was swift to put Mukuro in a headlock and hiss at him before he _dared_ to call her by that hated nickname.

" _My name is Natsume Fujiwara now and if I catch you calling me Vongola, Tsume or Sawada I will hurt you badly,"_ she said with a calm expression on her face.

"Kufufufu... how did you manage to hide from us, Natsume-chan?" asked Mukuro, acknowledging the warning.

"None of my grandfather's relatives knew what my name was, so they just called me Natsume. I simply told them an altered version of what the ninth did to me with _his_ approval and they did the rest. I haven't been to that house since Mama sent me away when I was six and a half."

Natori seemed to recover from his shock.

"Are they friends of yours, Natsume?"

"Mukuro and Chrome are the only other people I know who can see the same things I could. Their sight isn't as strong as mine, but it was a relief to know I wasn't going crazy," said Natsume. "Both of them are mediums, but Mukuro is stronger than Chrome. Though if a certain pineapple _dares_ to shove his paperwork on me again, I will make him suffer."

The Look she shot Mukuro when she said that sent shivers of fear down his spine.

It was only natural that he would change the subject, once Natori was distracted by his day job.

" _Why did I feel a bump against your waist?"_ he asked in Italian.

Natsume sighed.

" _I did something to attract the attention of the Sun goddess and as a result I became eligible to carry the pacifier. I took it so that Aria wouldn't have to. Besides, at least this way I have some leverage to use against those people if they came after me. What's weird is that Reborn hasn't been sent and it's already two years past what I remember."_

"Bossu _, Federico is still alive."_

Natsume turned to look at Chrome in shock.

 _"So... how_ did _you manage to escape being sent back to that house?"_ asked Mukuro, curious.

" _I insinuated that the Ninth was a pedophile and that my mother refused to believe me, which was why I was living with my grandfather. My grandfather's cousins were very reluctant to send me back after hearing that,"_ said Natsume slyly. _"On an unrelated note, my maternal grandmother is Aria's aunt. Which means if anything happens we are going to claim sanctuary with the Giglio Nero."_

Seeing the shock on their faces hearing that, Natsume brought out her pendant.

"Kufufufu. Well, at least we won't have to deal with the fossils again," said Mukuro pleased.

"Agreed," said Natsume with amusement.

"By the way Bossu... how _did_ you manage to get on the set, much less inside Natori-san's trailer?" asked Chrome.

"I ran into Natori during one of his side jobs as an exorcist. He realized I had the same power as he did so he offered to train me. Unfortunately our methods are a bit too different, so we parted ways. However he still considers me a good friend, so he offered to let me see how a movie was being made. If I had known about the roses though, I would have avoided that area," said Natsume.

" _Actually Natori-sama suspects you might be descended from a clan of shamans. He's been asking around about Reiko-san's mother to see if you might have someone who can give you proper training,"_ Hiiragi commented.

"Kufufufu...so it speaks?" said Mukuro darkly. He wasn't particularly fond of ayakashi.

"Be nice to Hiiragi," scolded Natsume. She then spotted a familiar pudgy form, and easily scooped up Nyanko in her arms. A sudden thought occurred to her. "If you bribe sensei with food and booze, he'll love you forever."

"Sensei?" repeated the twin mists.

"Baka! I will not cave in to the promise of free food and drinks!" said the cat, startling them greatly.

"Nyanko-sensei is just irritable that he has to hide from the cameras," said Natsume, scratching his ears affectionately. "His real form is really fluffy and strong, but he prefers to walk around in that fake cat body."

Chrome looked at the odd pudgy body in her arms...which oddly looked like a maneki-neko for some reason... before cuddling with the cat.

"He's quite the handsome fellow," she said cheerfully. Natsume smiled...she knew Chrome _loved_ cats of all shapes and sizes.

Nyanko preened at that, before he turned to Natsume.

"Who are these two?" he asked. He could sense the spiritual power they both held...though the male with the mismatched eyes was considerably more malevolent compared to the girl.

"Chrome and Mukuro are my vassals, sensei. So be nice," she replied. "That being said if you want to fight Mukuro then wait until we return home and I don't have to worry about normal people seeing you two going at it."

"Kufufufu...you do realize that now we've found you, we're not going to allow you to hide from us again."

"So long as you don't cause as much trouble as you did before, I could care less," said Natsume flippantly. "However I doubt that the Fujiwara have enough room for you two, much less Ken and Chikusa."

"I can arrange us to transfer into your school, Bossu, as well as an apartment."

Natsume didn't have to ask what she meant by that. There was no love lost between Chrome and her mother, after all.

"So long as it's above board and legal enough that the cops don't come after us, do what you will."

Chrome beamed at that. Then again, her boss knew all too well what her mother had done in the previous timeline. She wasn't feeling too charitable to such a cold-hearted woman who was all too willing to condemn her daughter to death because saving her required actually proving she gave a damn.

When Natsume had to return home (having imparted her new address to the Mist duo), she was unsurprised to find them following her less than a month later, along with Ken and Chikusa.

She was just happy to have her Mists back, even if she still couldn't have her proper Sun just yet. Natori was still Inactive, after all.

* * *

Tanuma eyed Rokudo with a rather leery expression. Chikusa was tolerable enough, but Rokudo gave him a bad feeling.

So you could imagine his shock when saw how _easily_ Natsume took to him, and the light headslap she gave him. Mukuro looked annoyed, but did not complain.

"Natsume...you know him?"

"Mukuro and Nagi are old friends of mine," said Natsume. She hated calling Chrome by her old name...it felt too false for her tastes. "And while Mukuro can be a creepy pain in the rear, he's still a good friend. You just have to look past his bad habits...and the laugh."

Tanuma eyed Mukuro for a moment.

"Tanuma...they can see the same things I can. Mukuro just had some _really_ bad experiences with spirits before he came to Japan, which is why he acts the way he does. Just...give him a chance, alright?" asked Natsume quietly.

His distrust turned into sad understanding as to why Natsume acted the way she did around someone who had clearly killed before and wasn't ashamed to do so again. For those like them, who knew of the supernatural side of things and like Natsume could interact with them directly, it was only natural they would have some bad experiences.

Natsume still had hope in humanity and the ayakashi. Mukuro had clearly lost that and was barely clinging to any sense of morality he might have had. It was obvious to Tanuma now that he was using Natsume as a sort of anchor for what little empathy he had left.

"I still don't trust him," said Tanuma.

"I don't expect you to take to him right away. Just give him a chance to prove he's not a monster," said Natsume sadly. "Everyone is so quick to judge him because his pain practically manifests itself like a dark aura that they don't see how much he's really hurting under it. The worst part was that it wasn't a spirit that did that to him...it was his own family."

The Esterneo, for all their sins and evils, were still Mukuro's blood family. And that was the part that pissed Natsume off the most when she thought about what he went through.

Tanuma resolved to give Rokudo a chance...he was still creepy as hell though.

 _A few days later..._

Tanuma was eating on the roof with Rokudo.

"So you're worried about Natsume? Good. That foolish woman never saves any worry for herself and is always too eager to jump into trouble for others without regards of her own safety," said Mukuro.

Tanuma wanted to argue, but he felt that the other teen had hit Natsume's personality on the head with that comment. She did get into a lot of unnecessary trouble without much regard for her own safety. Instead he took a bite out of his lunch.

"She said you were one of her good friends."

"She saved me from myself, and accepted my darkness without hesitation," said Mukuro quietly. "What's more was that she didn't allow me to be taken without a fight against a particularly nasty spirit that tried to possess my body."

That fight alone cemented his loyalty to her. The fact she only ever looked exasperated instead of angry when he lashed out was just bonus. She truly cared about not only him, but for his brothers and Chrome as well.

"What can you tell me about Natsume?" asked Tanuma.

"She was always alone. She took on burdens she didn't need to in order to feel useful and wanted. No one ever bothered to treat her a person, much less a proper girl so she never developed any sense of self-worth. Even her own father treated her like a toy he could put upon a shelf and only took an actual interest in her once she proved 'useful' for him," said Mukuro in disgust.

While he loathed Iemitsu, the simple fact was that _he_ was the reason that his Sky had been driven to somehow reverse time and send them back to their younger selves.

Did not change the fact that if Mukuro _or_ Chrome saw the bastard again, they wouldn't hesitate to try and kill him in as brutal a method as possible.

It was fortunate Reborn had been there when the incident happened, otherwise it could have turned out much worse than it did.

Mukuro looked Tanuma dead in the eye, and had a serious expression on his face.

"The simple fact of the matter is that Natsume has never been treated like an actual girl, or as a potential girlfriend by anyone once in her life. I suspect she started dressing up as a boy to avoid that sort of heartache, especially since her sight has gotten a lot stronger than I remember it being. The best thing you can do is to continue treating her as a friend and reminding her in little ways that she does matter and that you do see her as an actual person, not as some sort of tool for your own agenda," said Mukuro bluntly. "She's actually a lot better off from what I remember the last time we saw each other."

She was openly smiling for real, for one thing. And there wasn't some sort of oppressive weight holding her back.

She was allowed to be herself and to grow into her power naturally. So what if she was cursed at the moment? Mukuro knew she had the way to remove the curse whenever she saw fit.

Tanuma looked at Mukuro in a new light, and realized what Natsume had meant. He also agreed with Mukuro's assessment... Natsume was quite strong, but when it came to her own safety and desires, she was weak.

She simply had trouble believing that she could be selfish for her own sake.

He chuckled sadly.

"I suppose it's up to us to remind her that she's allowed to be human and actually be selfish for herself," he replied.

A silent understanding passed between them. Mukuro was quite pleased to have another ally who actually cared for his Sky and wanted her to be genuinely happy, rather than faking it.

She was much better off away from the Vongola.


	8. Chapter 8

Chrome took _one_ look at Madara's true form, and had to hold back a squeal of delight.

"He's so fluffy!" she said with barely hidden glee.

"I know right?" said Natsume with amusement. "You have no idea how much he pretends to hate it when I convince him to stay in this form for a few hours, just so I can brush his fur out."

The first time she did that, Nyanko pretended to complain about "not being a pet" and that he wasn't "cute". However when he realized that Natsume genuinely enjoyed brushing his fur until it was soft and not as tangled, he would merely grumble when she brought out the brush.

He wasn't about to dissuade Natsume from lavishing some attention on his true form. Not when it was so relaxing to feel her spiritual energy petting him in just the right way to make him sleepy. Like sunlight on a warm summer day when the only thought in your head was taking a nice nap.

"Just remember, no ribbons or anything."

Chrome nodded with delight, as she created another brush and followed Natsume's instructions on how to untangle the fur so that it was nice and smooth, without accidentally pulling it.

Mukuro watched the two turn the fiercesome ayakashi into a total puddle of goo under their hands with no little amount of amusement.

"You never did explain how you got him to follow you as a bodyguard," said Mukuro.

"Remember that book of scribbles that the spirits kept harassing me about in Namimori that belonged to my grandmother? Apparently she had a habit of collecting the true names of the youkai she beat into that book and they wanted it back. I've been returning the names, but I promised Nyanko-sensei that he could have the rest once I'm gone if I couldn't finish the task in time. In exchange he agreed to act as my bodyguard, so that he could collect on that agreement," said Natsume. A dark look of amusement crossed her face. "Besides, this means I could convince sensei to steal Hibari's food before he gets a chance to eat it whenever he annoys me too much. Remember how irritable he got whenever you drove those spirits into harassing him for a week and he couldn't do anything about it?"

Mukuro's eyes gleamed with dark delight.

Madara didn't care so long as the girls didn't stop brushing his fur. So what if he was being pampered by humans? At least Natsume generally didn't care when he went out drinking or try to limit his movements. She had a more general exasperation with his antics, which was a nice surprise.

He was also not purring at the end of it. He would deny any claims otherwise, even if they had evidence to the contrary.

Natsume hid a smile at the way Madara relaxed under her hand. It really was like dealing with a much nicer and less grumpy Xanxus.

And if the greater ayakashi allowed the girls to lay against him and nap without complaint, well that was all for the better now wasn't it?

He wouldn't let Mukuro near him though. Not a chance in hell. He had _standards_.

* * *

Taki stared in shock at the way Rokudo fought the youkai that had been terrorizing her for the better part of a year.

She had only approached Natsume by accident, when she caught the boy up in the curse that had been inflicted on her. She never expected him to bring in reinforcements, or for them to track down the youkai and forcibly purify it!

Mukuro took _one_ look at the way she was acting around Natsume before he sighed in annoyance.

"Great, now Tanuma and I are going to be outnumbered by the girls..." he muttered.

"There, there Mukuro-sama..." said Chrome with a straight face. You could tell she was laughing inside though.

"What is that supposed to mean?" demanded Natsume waspishly.

"You mean outside the fact she's clearly going to be joining the group that's 'in the know' when it comes to spirits and the fact you three are going to outnumber me and Tanuma?" said Mukuro irritably.

"What is Ken, chopped liver?" asked Natsume.

Taki was surprisingly quick on the uptake.

"Wait...are you saying Natsume is a girl? But he wears the boy's uniform!" said Taki in shock.

Natsume sighed in annoyance.

"I wear the boy's uniform to deter people from asking me out on dates, and because the neighbors kept making snide remarks about my grandmother who used to live around here a while back. It's also why I cut my hair short...it's harder to confuse me with Reiko if I look like a guy. It's not like it matters anyway."

Taki stared at her, before a deep well of sympathy came across her face. Then she saw Nyanko-sensei, and she couldn't resist the urge that came to her.

"TOO CUTE!"

Mukuro openly cackled at the expression on the fake cat's face. It made this entire mess worth it in his opinion.

On an unrelated note, Natsume found she preferred Taki's presence over Kyoko or Haru's any day of the week. Taki didn't have the same "oblivious" attitude or the ill-thought-out enthusiasm of Haru. She was far more sensible, almost like a less harsh version of Hana.

While she did have a rather...unique...enthusiasm for the supernatural, she was at least realistic about what she could do and was more than happy to dig into her grandfather's things to find anything that Natsume could use to deal with any situation.

Natsume noted a rather amusing development between her and Ken. Ken loved Taki's cooking, and she found his animal paths fascinating rather than scary. The look on Mukuro's face the first time she hugged Ken while he was using his cheetah path was hilarious. Besides, where Ken went, Chikusa usually followed and he didn't mind delving into the information Taki's grandfather left behind while the other two did prep work.

They were firmly the hidden support, and they accepted that role without a second thought.

* * *

Fon was rather pleased with himself. He had not only managed to locate the hidden cache of the Natsume clan, but he had found some of their retainers as well. Families that owed their lives to the clan for dealing with supernatural threats that almost ended their lines.

While some had died off, two or three still remained, however small they were.

They were quite pleased to hear that the clan hadn't entirely died off with the death of Reiko, just gone into hiding because of Nana's extreme reluctance to have any dealings with the spirits.

As it was, they had been preparing to search for Reiko's descendant after they started hearing rumors of someone that looked almost identical to her being active again. Fon had simply saved them the trouble, and agreed to send the contact information once he located Reiko's granddaughter.

That being said, Fon kept an ear out for a gathering of the spiritually inclined. From what he could tell, the moment he found the Sky Arcobaleno was coming up fast and he wanted to be in position when it happened.

He didn't have to wait long. Two months after he found the cache and the retainers, he heard rumors of a youkai that was going around eating familiars and causing all sorts of trouble. There was even some word of it attacking the livestock, which meant that a gathering would occur to discuss how to deal with the nuisance.

It was less of a war council and more of an informal meet-and-greet to act as bait for the ayakashi. After all, spiritually aware humans were quite the irresistable treat for those pests.

Natsume debated on whether to bring Mukuro and Chrome to this gathering, then decided against it. The vision she saw before only had her and Natori-san, which meant they were unlikely to join them.

Besides, someone had to keep an eye on things here, particularly since she wanted to keep the Fujiwara couple safe.

The Mist duo had taken that duty seriously, as Touko and Shiguru were nothing like Nana. They weren't _deliberately_ oblivious to what was going on like Nana was, they just ignored the obvious signs that there was something not quite right with Mukuro because he was a friend of Natsume's. So long as he didn't stir up any mischief they were content to ignore him.

That...and the two were going to keep an eye on things _discreetly_.

Natsume went and got some things ready. She had the feeling things were going to be headache inducing enough when she reached the gathering.

Eyeing something she had made as a joke, she packed it as well. If nothing else she was sure Natori would get some good use out of it, or a laugh.

 _A few days later..._

Natsume stared at the gathering. It was much more impressive in real life than it was in her vision.

Sensing the glow of the pacifier, which was thankfully hidden by her clothes, she noticed a small figure heading towards them.

She was still surprised to see him there at all.

"Master Fon, I wasn't expecting to see you at this gathering. Don't you normally operate out of China?" asked Natori.

"Yes, but I was informed by a trusted friend of mine that I would find something worth my interest at this one," said Fon. "From what I can tell, she was understating things. It is good to see you, Natori-san."

"Natori-san, who is this?" she asked, mostly so she wouldn't reveal she knew who he was already...at least from an underworld standpoint.

"My apologies, I forgot you don't run in the normal exorcist circles. This is Master Fon, an omnyouji from China who's also a grandmaster in Qigong. He specializes in breaking curses, among other things. I didn't think he would be here though," said Natori. He turned to Fon. "Master Fon, this is an associate of mine who occasionally helps out with my work. The fat cat is her bodyguard."

"Who are you calling a cat, gaki?" demanded Nyanko.

"It's a pleasure to meet you miss," said Fon politely.

Natsume smiled as well, and decided to surprise Fon a little bit.

" _It's a pleasure to meet you too, master Feng,"_ she replied in perfect, if slightly rusty Mandarin.

Fon's eyes light up with delight.

" _You speak Mandarin?"_ he asked hopeful.

" _I'm a little rusty, but I can hold a basic conversation in it,"_ she admitted.

"I didn't know you speak Chinese," said Natori in surprise.

"I speak a few languages. I just don't bother using it because there's no point. I'm just glad I tested out of English class, because I would have been very bored in it," admitted Natsume. "Though I wish my ability to read in them was a bit better."

"Is there something you wanted translated?" asked Fon. "I know a few languages myself, so I could at least pinpoint what you're looking for."

Natsume reached around and pulled something from under her shirt.

"I can narrow this down to something that uses romanji, but I can't really make out what it says. It belonged to my grandmother though," said Natsume easily.

Fon looked it over, before warm amusement filled his features.

"I know what this is and which family it belongs to. An associate of mine is the head of the family and she's been looking for her missing cousin for some time since she discovered her mother had a half-sister no one knew about."

Fon also noted that Natsume clearly knew what it was already. She was doing this so her friend wouldn't get suspicious.

"Forgive me for asking, but are you the grandchild of Natsume Reiko?"

"You knew my grandmother?" said Natsume in surprise.

"Not particularly, however I've been looking into the clan after my associate mentioned them. I've managed to track down what remained of their techniques and a handful of retainers that belonged to the clan," said Fon.

"Clan?" repeated Natsume in disbelief.

"Reiko is a direct descendant of powerful shamans. The clan was about to go into decline before she appeared, and for the most part has become dormant... and then you started making waves. The retainer clans were quite pleased to hear that one of the Natsume clan survived."

Natori was surprised to have his private suspicions confirmed.

"Retainers?" squeaked Natsume.

"It's not as bad as you might think. Some of the people Reiko's clan have helped in the past were small time families unable to pay the fee for their assistance. So in exchange they agreed to have some of their...extra...family members act as their retainers and go-betweens with the public. It was a win-win for the clan and for the people chosen. It meant they had a way to earn a living without being a burden to their families and were made useful, and the clan could send them out on minor errands while focusing on their work."

Natsume thought back to how feudal Japan worked, before she relaxed a little at the idea.

"As it is, some of the retainers eventually developed spiritual awareness on their own, making them more useful to the clan. The remainder of those people continued their duty of service to the shaman clan for protection, as they were targeted with limited means to defend themselves. Once they find out where you live, don't be surprised if they move into the area and approach you for help," said Fon pleasantly.

"If they just need help and protection from ayakashi who would target them, I can live with that."

Natsume had no idea Fon was leaving out one particular tidbit... that the retainers had kept the habit of calling the females of the clan 'hime'. Considering she had Sky Flames, he was guaranteed some degree of entertainment.

"Would you mind terribly if I inform my associate that I've found her missing cousin?" he asked politely.

"Not at all," said Natsume. She knew Fon would want to have a quiet discussion with her once Natori wasn't likely to hear it. If only to explain what the pacifier meant among the underworld and the fact she was at risk for having it.

When they encountered the youkai causing all the trouble, Natsume didn't even think twice when it came to protecting Hiiragi from being eaten.

She treated the beast the same way she would errant Guardians causing far too much damage (and paperwork). Her hands slipped into the familiar form to create the Zero Point Breakthrough...and she let loose.

The second the ice touched the youkai, it began to freeze over in a rapid pace until it became a solid ice block. There was no way for it to escape...if someone like Xanxus couldn't break free from the technique when it was used by someone as inexperienced as Timoteo had been at the time, then there was no way a mere _spirit_ would be able to break free from the ice when it was done by someone who generally used it as a quick discipline technique.

She could sense Fon's open approval and the fact he was impressed by how smoothly she had captured and dealt with the spirit.

Natori looked at Natsume, who had a tired but slightly pleased expression on her face. He didn't know what the deal with that ice technique was, and he had the feeling things would change if he asked.

One thing was for certain...he was not pleased being mostly out of the loop and it was clear Natsume and Fon were hiding something.

Right now though, he had only one thought out of his mind. He had seen how Nanase-san had taken an unusual interest in Natsume, and he knew it wouldn't be long before Matoba started sniffing about.

He would not allow that man to get his claws into Natsume. She deserved better than that, and there was no way she would like his methods.

Fon had stayed behind for a bit, though Natori was under no illusion that the cursed man was going to approach Natsume once he left.

Which meant this was the best time to act out on his feelings and hopefully make his intent clear. He just hoped Natsume didn't react _too_ badly to what he planned to do.

"I apologize in advance if this startles you, but I really can't help it."

Natsume looked at him confused...before her mind registered an important fact.

Natori was _kissing_ her, on the mouth and she could tell from his Flames he was interested in her as more than just a friend or a little sister type.

She was stunned, and wondering what the hell was going on when he broke off.

"Natori-san?" she said confused, mostly in shock that it had happened at all.

"I don't mind it if you call me by my first name, Natsume," said Natori smiling. There was something in there had had her heart skip a beat. "That being said, I do plan on courting you properly after this."

Natsume blushed, though she couldn't explain why.

Natori disappeared with Hiiragi, and Fon's approach for her to snap out of it.

"I was wondering if he was going to make a move," commented on Fon. He noticed her dazed expression. "Are you alright?"

Natsume shook out of it.

"I'm fine. I'm not too sure about introducing Natori into the Cosa Nostra, since he's Inactive..."

Fon blinked. So Natsume wasn't _entirely_ clueless about the underworld or flames.

"So you know."

"I knew exactly what I was getting into when that man appeared. It's better for some nameless Sky to take on the pacifier and give Luce's daughter a break so she has a chance to raise her children without some ancient sword of Damocles looming over her head to claim her like it did her mother," said Natsume tiredly. Then she frowned with annoyance. "That being said, I really don't like the fact Luce basically tricked all of you into taking the curse without even giving you a choice about it. There was no call for that and it was an inexcusable stunt to pull on you."

Fon stared at her in shock, before a sad smile came across his face.

"You're the first person I have ever met who would say something like that, and actually _mean_ it. Thank you."

"Would you like a ride while we leave here? I don't want to deal with the inevitable questions of what I did to that ayakashi and this sort of discussion is best done with less chance of the uninitiated hearing it."

Fon took her opposite shoulder, after hearing that. It was nice to see that Natsume wasn't as clueless as he had feared.


	9. Chapter 9

Natsume couldn't help but feel the faint stirrings of relief, meeting Aria. Last time she had only gotten to meet Yuni, and by that point the pacifier had passed on.

Now she got to meet the other girl again...except this time Yuni was still very much a toddler.

"Hello Natsume-chan. My name is Aria. You have no idea how happy I was when Fon called and said he found you," she said smiling.

Yuni babbled happily while hugging a very unhappy Nyanko-sensei...who knew better than to attack a small child. Natsume would be pissed if he did.

Natsume leveled a flat look at her.

"Right. As if you didn't get the same vision I did that Fon would be the one to find me first," she said amused.

Aria's eyes sparkled with amusement at that.

"I have to ask...why did you take the pacifier?" asked Aria. Beside her, Gamma took interest in that question as well.

Natsume wanted to sigh.

"I didn't have any particular reason to live, and at least this way you would be able to raise your children without the same burden your mother had before you, threatening to take your life too early. It seemed like a fair choice to make my limited time worth something, even if no one knew who I was or why I was doing it. Then I found a reason to keep going when I found Nyanko-sensei, and I forgot all about it until Fon showed up."

Aria had a sad smile on her face. Clearly Natsume had given up hope until she found her cat and found a new reason to live. That was no way for a child to live. She was barely sixteen, after all.

"I have a proposition for you. Things have been moving in the Italian underworld in a way that has given me a bad feeling, and people are starting to ask questions about our family since I haven't declared an heir yet despite the fact Yuni has Sky flames."

"You want me to act as your heir, to give Yuni some protection from the wolves, while at the same time giving me and my guardians some protection from those that would see our current lifestyle as weakness," said Natsume. She had suspected as much from that one vision she had.

Aria said nothing, she merely took out a small box with several rings inside.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but I want my daughter to be safe from that sort of burden until she's older and has guardians to protect her. Besides, everyone already believes the Sky Arcobaleno is part of my family anyway, despite the fact word has already spread that I don't have the pacifier."

Natsume looked at the rings. Unlike when she took on the Vongola Rings and the subsequent Ring battles, these didn't hold nearly the same weight.

"If I do this... if someone like Natori were to go active...would they be forced into the mafia?"

"Considering his 'side job', Natori-san would mostly be safe as his flames would simply amplify his existing abilities. So long as he doesn't use them overtly in a fight, the Vindice will generally overlook the fact he is active," said Fon.

Natsume looked relieved to hear that.

"Besides...from what I saw he's more likely to get involved in a different way which means he would be allowed in the know if you were inclined to tell him the full truth," said Aria mischievously.

Natsume looked at her with a sense of slowly dawning horror.

"What do you mean?"

"No one would think twice about his involvement in the underworld if you were married, and that way he wouldn't have to give up his career so long as he was discreet about his flames being active," said Aria. She wanted to cackle at the monumental blush on Natsume's face hearing that.

"WHAT?!" squeaked Natsume, her face a bright red.

"Kufufufu...isn't that a wonderful idea, _Natsume-chan_?" purred a voice from beside her.

Fon, Gamma and Aria flinched, but Natsume didn't react. She was too used to Mukuro's antics.

"Bossu always did have a crush on him," agreed Chrome.

"I do not have a crush on Natori!" protested Natsume.

"Kufufufu... face it. You may have hidden it the first time, but it's obvious to everyone that you definitely have an interest in him now," said Mukuro, wrapping his arms around her neck and putting his head on top of hers.

"Who are you two?" said Gamma, twitching.

"Rokudo Mukuro and Chrome Dokuro. They're my Mists," said Natsume tiredly. "Don't mind Mukuro...he enjoys causing chaos by being a creepy bastard almost as much as Reborn enjoys causing mayhem by being a trolling pain in the ass."

"You say the nicest things, _hime_ ," said Mukuro with dark delight.

Natsume reached around and pinched him in the stomach, hard. He winced and let go of her.

"I'll act as your heir," said Natsume. "If only to insure the Cosa Nostra doesn't get any ideas. I refuse to be a puppet a second time, after all the effort I went to in order to rewrite things."

Aria blinked.

"What do you mean, 'rewrite things'?"

"Isn't it obvious?" said Mukuro smirking. "The Mare Rings have the power to see into alternate worlds, but no one has ever said what the _Vongola_ rings could do if the user had the right bloodline and incentive."

Aria wasn't the only one listening to what was going on with rapt attention. They could all tell the twin Mists had insured no one else would hear this earth-shattering revelation.

"My name might be Natsume Fujiwara now...but in a previous timeline I was Tsume Sawada, the Vongola Decimo."

Only dead silence was heard as that statement sunk in.

Finally, Fon spoke.

"May I ask what happened? And why would you need to change things?"

"To put things into context, one would have to go back to why I was sent to live with my maternal grandfather. My mother has the same Sight I have now, but she was so determined to keep from being drawn into that world that she began denying reality at a very young age. So when my powers awakened at full blast because Vongola Nono sealed my flames shortly after I turned five, she couldn't handle the idea of being drawn into the supernatural side of things. She took the opportunity provided when the teachers began questioning why my personality suddenly changed overnight along with the alarming drop in my grades and sent me to her father."

Natsume took a long pull of her drink.

"I was around six years old when memories of the original timeline hit me in short bursts. The day I found the pendant with the emblem of the Giglio Nero famiglia and learned that Reiko's father wasn't from Japan, a plan formed in my head. I wasn't about to be used as a pawn for the Ninth generation a second time, so I made up a small lie about what happened that night to keep from being sent back," said Natsume. She took a moment to compose herself, before continuing. "Originally I was sent back to my mother and kept completely isolated from my peers and the adults around me both because of my sealed flames, and because of my abilities. I was known as Dame-Tsume and harassed to an rather alarming extent by everyone around me...all while my _mother_ kept pretending everything was fine and outright ignored the fact I was being bullied. It was to the point she openly told me to my face that she didn't care if I never made anything of myself, so long as I was 'happy' and 'lived each day to the fullest'. She never even _tried_ to encourage me to do better or attempt to help me in the slightest."

Aria was appalled. As a mother she couldn't possibly understand why anyone would essentially abandon their child like that, and still claim to 'love' them.

"What about your father?" asked Fon.

"Iemitsu," Natsume spat out his name like a vile curse, and there were matching growls of hatred from her Mists at his name, "Would rather pretend he's the 'perfect family man' while treating us as toys he can place on a shelf when it suits him. He's more interested in his position and his famiglia than he was about his wife and child. And when he was around, he was more often than not drunk and pretending to be in 'love-love' with his wife. He was the reason I was sealed, all because he didn't want to face reality and train me like he should have. He only took a remote interest in me after I was named the heir because it meant I was 'useful' to him."

The sad fact was that Fon could believe it. When Aria had found out who Reiko's child had married, she had Iemitsu investigated.

He was truly more interested in his famiglia than his family, and only took his son with him when it became clear Nana was being emotionally abusive the _second_ his flames manifested. He didn't want to get another loud lecture from his boss about the fact they had lost track of an heir because he hadn't visited in some time.

"So when the Ninth's sons all died off, and Xanxus was indisposed...he sent Reborn to train me. A child who had been isolated, bullied and basically had no reason to try was suddenly the only viable heir they had left...all with the seal still firmly in place. You can imagine how _that_ went, especially since I was raised a civilian at the time with limited to no experience towards mafia-level crazy or violence."

Fon cringed openly at the thought alone.

Reborn was a decent man, but a patient teacher he was not. He barely tolerated Skull and that was only because he had no other choice. He still didn't show any respect to the Cloud because the other man had been a civilian suddenly thrown into the mafia because he was a strong Cloud who didn't act like it.

So for him to be sent to train a civilian who had undergone deep trauma from years of bullying and negative reinforcement, which was generally Reborn's training method with added chaos involved... there was no way for that to go any way but badly.

Natsume chuckled bitterly.

"It's ironic that the World's Greatest Hit Man ended up being the closest thing to an actual father figure I ever had. He was a complete and utter bastard, and he made my life hell...but in the end he still cared more than my own father ever did. He never allowed me to doubt myself and he provided more encouragement than I ever had before he came in his own twisted way."

Aria smiled sadly hearing that.

"You sound like you admire Uncle Reborn."

"He's an egotistical, trolling, chaotic pain in the ass who takes sick amusement in the suffering of others. In spite of that, he's still the first person who made me believe in myself," admitted Natsume. "I wouldn't have been able to learn how to muster up enough resolve to get where I am now if not for him."

You could hear the tired admiration and respect she had for Reborn...and the exasperated fondness she had for his antics.

"What exactly happened that you would rewrite your own history, even if it meant never meeting him?" asked Fon.

Mukuro growled.

"Iemitsu happened. Because of the 'guardians' that were forced upon her the first time around, Natsume was never allowed to experience the usual trials all teenagers go through once hormones start taking into effect. She was able to lead the Vongola for ten years, in spite of the Ninth generation attempting to make her a puppet, before people started talking about the fact that she had never been seen with a man or even on a date. After all, as a 'woman' she should have started looking for a suitable 'husband' to sire heirs with in order to continue the bloodline."

Aria growled at that. She fully understood how irritating it was hearing those particular rumors.

She had to hear them herself for _years_ until the pacifier suddenly passed on to someone else, freeing her up to marry Gamma.

"Gokudera-san was a little too...enthusiastic...about protecting her virtue. He chased off all the people who might be interested in dating boss that weren't deterred by Reborn-san, and then when it became clear that her position was being threatened because she didn't have anyone dating her, Iemitsu decided to arrange a marriage for her...'for the good of the Vongola and the bloodline'," said Chrome in disgust.

"The idiot was from an allied famiglia and he was more interested in securing his own power... the second he was permitted to stay a few nights with his potential fiancee, the idiot tried to force himself on her. If Reborn hadn't shown up when he felt Tsume's flames flare up in distress..." said Mukuro in fury.

They had all assumed Tsume would be able to handle herself in a fight. They had never considered her inexperience with men to backfire on them so spectacularly, as she had been too shocked to retaliate properly when he started making unwanted advances on her.

Reborn had killed the bastard, but the damage was done. Tsume had withdrawn into herself and Reborn had gone on the warpath after Iemitsu...he had been the one to pick out her 'fiancee' after all.

It had only been two months after that incident that Mukuro woke up in his younger body and realized that his Sky had done something.

"Bossu did something, and we woke up in our younger bodies. When we realized we couldn't find her, we knew she had to be the one behind it."

Natsume looked sheepish.

"I figured that since the Mare Rings could see into alternate worlds and even _pull_ people through some technique I never found the details about, then it only made sense that the Vongola rings had a hidden ability of their own. After all, they are part of the Tri-Ni-Sette just like the pacifiers and the Mare rings are, so why _wouldn't_ they be hiding something? Turns out I was right...even if a few memories were thankfully left behind in the process."

Add in the fact that the Vongola were rather busy becoming _the_ strongest mafia family in the world and that the Secundo had stolen the position as head of the family from his second cousin... it was understandable that none of the previous Bosses would have tried what Tsume had.

Besides, she had ample reason to _avoid_ becoming Vongola Decimo. She had no love for a famiglia that had essentially abandoned her, only to suddenly remember her existence because they had screwed up and needed a puppet to keep the group from imploding since Xanxus was adopted.

Never mind the hell she went through before the Ninth finally croaked and he could no longer manipulate her from the shadows.

She had no love for her father's family and even less desire to remind them that she existed.

Aria got up, walked over to where Natsume was and hugged her tightly. There was a comforting warmth that made her relax, and she leaned into the hug and wrapped her arms around the older woman.

"I'm sorry you went through that."

"I'm just glad that the majority of that memory didn't follow me back... I know 'something' happened, but not the specifics. That being said I do have something I know the Arcobaleno will be very interested in...it's one of the main reasons I agreed to take on the curse, other than the fact I didn't want your children to be raised without their mother."

"What is that?" asked Fon, listening intently.

"I know how to break it. Or at least change it so that you can get your true form back and live to see your apprentice grow up," said Natsume bluntly.

Seeing the stark shock on Fon's face, as well as Aria, was well worth sharing that tidbit.


	10. Chapter 10

Aria downed her drink, still in shock over today's revelations.

Her adorable cousin had gone through so much, but was still came out with a kinder heart than anyone she had ever met. While the fact Natsume somehow retained memories of a timeline that would never happen wasn't surprising, the fact she _also_ knew how to break the curse that had killed her mother Luce was.

Though Aria couldn't blame Natsume for keeping her silence on the cure. She had no reason to give it to the Arcobaleno, and they wouldn't have believed her in the first place. The only reason she had taken on the curse was to buy time until she was on a more 'level footing' when it came to her own situation, and to wait until the curse had almost run it's course before she approached the Vindice with how to break it.

Aria took a lot of comfort in the fact Natsume had fully planned to break the curse before Yuni was _ever_ tapped for it. Hearing that had solidified Gamma's appreciation for Natsume.

She downed her scotch.

Natsume would officially become her heir next month, though she wouldn't be moving to Italy. Right now the only thing keeping the Fujiwara safe was the fact no one knew she existed or what she had. And Aria refused to relocate her cousin just because it would be easier for her to train Natsume up as the next Giglio Nero donna.

Not after hearing even a fraction of what Natsume had gone through both in her original timeline and what she went through in this one. She needed the stability the couple were able to provide and it was only two more years until Natsume graduated high school.

Aria could be patient, and in two more years Natsume could move to Italy on the grounds of a 'scholarship' when she could begin her training in earnest.

The Giglio Nero were a neutral faction and everyone 'knew' that anyone seeking to attack it would also have to deal with the Arcobaleno coming after them. It wasn't a secret that the likes of Reborn and the others were fond of her family. They could afford to wait when it came to revealing their heir.

As it was, Aria fully planned to pay Fon for a long-term bodyguard/training assignment, with the addition that he was allowed to bring his apprentice I-Pin with him. That would keep the Triads off his back since he was already on a job and keep I-Pin safe as well. From the way Natsume had handled Yuni with a fond expression, it was clear that the young woman had a way with small children.

It also allowed Fon to prepare Natsume not only as a fighter (he couldn't quite hide the subtle delight he had upon hearing she preferred martial arts, but had limited to no training), but as a potential leader of the family. His presence alone would deter most assassins, once they discovered her existence.

Not to mention served as a subtle indicator that she was already claimed if her flames were discovered.

Natsume had taken to wearing the heir ring around her neck, and by next month it would be considered 'official' in the eyes of the mafia.

* * *

Natsume took one look at I-Pin and had to hold back a silent squeal of feminine delight. As it was, she still scooped up the surprised child into a warm hug.

Fon chuckled at I-Pin's reaction. He could tell Natsume would be a very good influence on his apprentice.

At this point Natsume was glad Touko and Shiguru accepted the story that her cousin on her mother's side had finally managed to track her down, and in order to prepare her for college had sent Fon as her tutor. Of course since he already had an apprentice, being a grandmaster of several martial arts styles, he had managed to add I-Pin into the contract as well.

Touko...was just happy to have another little girl to spoil rotten.

"Ah, that reminds me Natsume-chan. I found this at the gathering," said Fon.

He pulled out a cage, and inside was a ball of fur. Closer inspection revealed it to be a young nekomata, likely not even a hundred years old yet.

"A nekomata?"

"As an Arcobaleno, we all found ourselves attracting suitable familiars that attached themselves and never left. As I had no idea if you had found one yet, I thought it prudent to take this off the hands of that rather foolish exorcist. It was clear he was planning to sell it off to act as a shiki to someone who wouldn't fully appreciate it."

Natsume reached out for the cage, only for the kitten to wake up and begin hissing angrily at her.

Undetered, Natsume undid the latch allowing the kitten out. There were spells binding it and keeping the nekomata from escaping or attacking anyone in the room. It looked quite painful, in her opinion.

Natsume held out a hand for the kitten to smell. It was clear that the poor thing was agitated from being trapped for so long. The little one held an intelligence that said it knew exactly what sort of fate would befall it once the cage was removed.

"There, there little one. There's no need to be afraid."

The kitten hissed at her, but was unable to lash out.

"Sensei, could you open the windows?"

"What are you planning to do?" said Nyanko.

Natsume merely smiled and said nothing. Fon watched with interest as she carefully removed the spell collar that forced the kitten to remain in the room, and did nothing to stop it from escaping.

"Are you sure that was wise? It may lash out at humans."

"It was just scared, and in pain from the collar. I would rather gain it's trust gradually than try to force it into submission," said Natsume.

It wasn't that she didn't appreciate Fon's gesture...she just hated forcing an innocent creature like that into becoming her familiar simply because she could. It was no better than being forced to deal with fake guardians simply because they were the roughly the same age as her and happened to bear a strong resemblance to the Primo's generation.

As it was, it took Natsume a full two weeks before the nekomata kitten started to follow her around. And a full month before the familiar bond settled and the kitten happily accepted Natsume's presence.

Natsume named her Rin, because the kitten had an amusing 'tsundere' attitude that reminded her of a character from one of her favorite animes.

That anime was "Fate/Stay Night".

* * *

 _A few days later..._

Fon was outside, teaching Natsume martial arts. Considering she had openly admitted she never had proper training before, but had developed a very rough style that allowed her to push energy from her fists (Fon had yet to see the divine beads she held, or the celestial brush), Fon decided to first give her an assessment on which style to teach her first.

He picked Qigong, which was a common style used by several exorcists, but he also threw in some jiujitsu.

Fon was quite pleased by his new student, who listened properly and only needed a few demonstrations to pick up on the basics. Her form was still somewhat loose, but he knew practice would deal with the worst of it.

Considering they were doing this out in the field, where the worst they would have to worry about were some of Natsume's fans seeing them, it was only natural that Fon be very surprised when he realized there were magatama rotating around Natsume's ankles and wrists.

"Natsume-san...what is _that_?"

Natsume realized what he was looking at, before she smiled lightly.

"According to Nyanko-sensei, they're called the 'devout beads'. They're the first evolution of the divine rosary that Amaterasu-no-kami uses to ward off evil."

She had found out by accident a few weeks ago that if she 'charged' them, they could be launched like bullets to an enemy. Considering her only long range attack took several seconds to load, and her martial arts skills were sloppy at best, the beads were perfect for her. They acted as a mid-range weapon that she could use to keep others at bay while she charged her attacks or to recover so she could get away.

Nyanko also mentioned that if she continued to use them, they would get an 'upgrade' to a more powerful version.

Out of the three divine weapon sets, the rosaries were the weakest...but they were also the most versitile and easy to use.

The fake cat was still in shock at how quickly Natsume had figured out how to use them, much less that she had an idea of what the others looked like.

He had only heard rumors that the final form of the weapons controlled certain elements, but he had no idea which ones.

Natsume...found a certain irony that the weapon she had been given controlled ice. Mostly because she already had one or two attacks that allowed her to create ice from fire.

Fon looked at the rosary with an incredulous expression on his face, before he turned to her deadpan.

"You gained the favor of the sun goddess herself. That's how you got the seal removed," he said flatly.

Natsume didn't try to deny it.

"She was possessing a miko and handing out small charms to 'drum up business' during a festival. Except when she got to me she gave me a box and told me not to open it. Two years later she showed up again and the box opened by itself...less than a week later Checkerface showed up and soon after I met the Fujiwara, who heard about me being shuffled around the family because the ayakashi kept bothering me, so they took me in. Believe me, the second I figured out what happened I made a very big offering to the first shrine towards Amaterasu I could find, and a donation every year since."

Fon chuckled lightly at that.

"I can believe it. At least it was one of the _nicer_ kami who are known to favor small children with good things, than an ayakashi who only wanted to use you later."

He had been worried about that, actually.

"If you have the rosaries, then I can only assume you have the brush and ink set as well?"

Natsume smirked.

"I've been using the rejuvenation technique to restore old scrolls. Unfortunately my Chinese isn't so good that I can read most of them, and some of them are in a dialect I can't read at all."

Fon perked up hearing that.

"You can restore old, faded scrolls with the brush?"

"Outside of practicing my spells and keeping my skills with the few attacks it has fresh, that's mostly what I use it for," she informed him.

He looked rather excited to hear that. He knew a number of old scrolls that had lost techniques that couldn't be read from how damaged they were. He could get them for cheap and with Natsume's help the old spells could be restored and used again!

Natsume chuckled, the looked rather puzzled when she felt an odd warmth blossom in her chest. From the expression on Fon's face, he felt it too, before his expression went from 'openly pleased' to something closer to 'deliriously happy'.

"Was that harmony?" she asked. It felt very similar to something she had felt once before, but she couldn't be sure.

"Yes, it was. It seems we merely needed something to bond over for it to kick in, or for our thoughts to be on the same wavelength. Have you really never experienced it before?"

"I felt something like it, but it was a really long time ago. It's not like I had a chance to find real guardians the first time," said Natsume.

Fon patted her hand at that.

"At least now I have a reason to properly break away from the Triads if they attempt to bother me again," said Fon pleased.

It also meant Aria wouldn't have to keep paying him for a job he would have happily done for free. Natsume was a delight to talk to and a better student than he could have hoped for.

He absolutely did not pout when Natsume scooped him up for a cuddle. Was it _her_ fault that all the other Arcobaleno were great to cuddle in groups, even if Reborn never let her get away with it often?

She had to make do with Colonello and Skull half the time, at least until they aged up again.

Fon put up with it, mostly because Natsume generally treated him more like an adult than anyone ever did, and she was still giddy from the feeling of a proper Element bond. Besides, she was rather warm and it felt nice.

* * *

Reborn was visiting Aria, who was in a very good mood today.

"Did something good happen recently?" he asked.

"I found out I have an adorable cousin on my mother's side...who also happens to be the same one who took on the Sky pacifier for me. She also agreed to act as my heir so Yuni wouldn't have to worry about the sharks until she's old enough to have guardians of her own to protect her," said Aria smiling.

"You found the missing Sky pacifier?" said Reborn in shock.

"Apparently mom had a half-sister in Japan she didn't know about until _after_ the woman had already died and had a daughter. The new Sky Arcobaleno is that woman's granddaughter," said Aria. "I also just heard from Fon that she has harmonized with him, so there's a chance she could handle you as well."

"Fon knows already?"

"I saw in a vision that he would be the one to locate her first. Considering she lives in a fairly rural area and all the flame actives are connected to her, it's no wonder we were never able to find where she was," said Aria.

Reborn frowned at that.

"Wouldn't it be better to move her to Italy for training?"

Aria winced at that.

"She's a civilian. She only has two more years before she graduates high school anyway, and she agreed to move to Italy for college. I can afford to wait two years, since she has the pacifier. Besides, we talk all the time over the computer so it's not like she's going to be completely ignorant of how things are in Italy when she does show up."

Aria fully planned to go behind Natsume's back and tag-team with Touko-san in order to get the girl to wear the correct uniform.

Reborn frowned at that.

"I could always go and help train her."

Aria did wince at that.

"Considering what I found out about her history, I sincerely doubt she would appreciate your brand of chaos, uncle Reborn. Particularly anywhere near her home."

Reborn raised an eyebrow at that.

"My adorable little sister isn't _just_ a member of my family...she's also a Vongola."

Reborn stared at her.

"Now you have my full interest."

"Natsume's father is Iemitsu Sawada. Her mother is my cousin, but she's so firmly in denial about anything out of the ordinary that might disrupt the fantasy she's built around herself that she will turn a blind eye to anything that happens. Including bullying and harassment. Natsume was sent to live with her grandfather, but when he died she was almost sent back to her mother. Instead she came up with a half-lie about why she was sent away in the first place and they shuffled her around between several families until she settled were she is now. She really doesn't want the couple she's living with to be burdened by the mafia, much less what she already goes through since she's an exorcist."

Reborn blinked.

"How do the Vongola not know of this?"

"Because Timoteo sealed her shortly after she went Active...when she was only five. The reason she was sent away was because her grades suddenly dropped like a stone and her personality shifted in a way that alarmed the teachers to something almost as damaging."

Reborn winced at that, as he could easily guess what the civilian teachers would have assumed happened. And if Aria's cousin really did deny reality to that extent, odds were she would ignore what was going on and fail to get the kid any therapy at all.

No wonder the kid didn't want to go back to that house.

"How did she avoid being sent back?"

Aria smirked in a way that Reborn was all too familiar with. Mostly because it was one he used himself when creating prime chaos. He found himself smirking as well, eagerly anticipating what she had to say next.

"Natsume remembered being sealed...so she told her grandfather's cousins that she remembered seeing her father's 'friend' that he had brought with him entering her room, but couldn't remember the rest. However it happened shortly before her grades suddenly dropped and her mother kept denying anything happened even when the teachers told her bluntly that something was wrong...so she was sent to live with her grandfather for a time. Needless to say his cousins were hardly going to send a child back to a home where they had been attacked in their own room..."

Reborn blinked.

"Wait...didn't you just say that Timoteo was the one to seal her? As in the Ninth Vongola don?" he said slowly as a wicked grin appeared on his face.

"Yes, at Iemitsu's request since he didn't want to train his own daughter."

"Oh god, that's..."

A child was sneaky enough to get Timoteo branded a _pedophile_ , with Iemitsu being his enabler? He could only imagine the expression on the ninth's face if he ever heard that particular story!

Reborn cackled.


	11. Chapter 11

Natsume wasn't too sure about the impromptu girl's day out, which included Chrome, I-Pin, and Taki. She wasn't complaining though.

She never really enjoyed them before, and had mostly gone along with Kyoko and Haru...then again those 'outtings' usually coincided with yet another attempt to set her up with a 'nice guy' that Hayato then proceeded to chase off, if Reborn didn't simply by being himself.

After the fifth time it happened, she found a way to be far, far away from the two whenever they attempted to drag her off on another outing with just the girls.

Chrome gave Natsume a look of sympathy.

"At least this time we won't 'coincidentally' run into some guy that is available," said Chrome.

Aria, when she heard that, frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"Our old friends used to drag Natsume on a girl's day before... usually in an attempt to set her up once she was all relaxed from the spa and fresh mani/pedi. After a while Natsume started avoiding them when she sensed it coming, because she didn't want to bother with the headaches of Hayato being all territorial and Reborn being Reborn," explained Chrome.

Natsume sighed miserably.

"I really don't get why they insisted on trying to set me up with anyone. I was fine being the odd one out," she said in annoyance.

Chrome shared a look with Aria...it was clear Natsume had resigned herself to being all alone for the rest of her life, and didn't see the issue.

Aria approached Chrome while Natsume was out using the restroom.

"How bad was it?"

"Because the seal was kept on her long after puberty would have set it, the necessary hormones to spark the usual interest in romance were never delivered properly until her late teens. As a result she didn't really develop as a girl until she was roughly in her twenties. Add in the fact that she was never treated as a girl and tormented by most of her peers about her looks..." said Chrome, before sighing. "By the time she _did_ develop a crush on someone, she was already mired in the worst the mafia had to offer and stuck dealing with the subtle manipulations of the Ninth who kept trying to use her as a puppet. And when he died, it just sparked the entire mess that caused her to send us back. She was never allowed to date anyone normally or experience what being a girl is about."

Aria winced.

"Worse was the fact that her storm, Hayato, kept chasing off anyone who _was_ interested and if they survived his antics then Reborn tended to scare them off by being himself when they realized that they would have to deal with his protective tendencies towards her. Most people can barely tolerate him for small periods, so you can imagine what _living_ with him around would be like. Natsume had basically resigned herself to being alone for the rest of her life, until Iemitsu's stupidity forced the issue."

"Who did she develop a crush on?" asked Aria.

Chrome actually smiled at that.

"Amusingly enough, Natori-san. She was fascinated by the tattoo that she insisted kept moving when she saw some of his movies, and she always wanted to meet him and ask him about it. However the fact he was a civilian and so good looking really deterred her from ever acting on it," said Chrome. She looked at Natsume. "I'm happy she finally has a chance to actually have a life."

Aria smiled sadly at that. She gently ruffled Chrome's hair.

"Enough of this sad talk. I think our next stop should be the clothing store..."

Chrome leaned in to ask her something.

"What are you really planning?"

Aria's eyes gleamed with the sort of mischief Chrome was all too familiar with.

"I talked with Touko and it's long past time for Natsume to get used to being a girl again. So she got some of the girl's uniforms from Natsume's school and cleared up the issue with the teachers. Come next term Natsume will have to wear the correct uniform for at least one school term to prepare her for when she comes to Italy, since there is no way Reborn would ever allow her to dress like a man. Besides, her chest was already starting to draw some suspicions from her teachers, but they were too polite to ask her outright."

Aria had gone in with Touko and 'explained' to the teachers about the incident and why Natsume had been living with her distant cousins instead of her mother. Rather than raise a stink about Natsume pretending to be a boy for several years, they had been sympathetic and agreed not to make a big deal out of it. So long as Natsume used the correct facilities and stayed with the girls from now on during school excursions, they wouldn't raise a fuss.

However she had to wear the correct uniform from now on or they _would_ say something.

Fon was doing his part by hiding all the uniforms Natsume had in her closet, along with a few outfits that were overdue for replacement or simply to be turned into scraps.

The Fujiwara were well off, but there was no reason for Natsume to wear such old clothing when they could easily afford a few things. Even if Natsume didn't mind wearing Touko's old hand-me-downs.

Hence the girl's day out... Touko wasn't the only one eager to see how Natsume would look once it was over.

Natsume only cottoned on roughly around dinner.

"What's really going on, Aria-nee?" asked Natsume, eyes narrowed.

Aria smiled, inwardly cheering because of how quickly Natsume agreed to call her 'big sister'.

"I've had a talk with Touko and your teachers. Come Monday you're going to be wearing the correct uniform."

"What?!" said Natsume in shock.

"Your teachers were already getting suspicious about your actual gender. We just smoothed things over with them," said Aria bluntly.

"Actually Natsume, I noticed some of the boys giving you odd looks for a few weeks now," added Taki.

"Great... I really don't need that headache."

"If anyone bothers you, then you can give them the same story I gave the teachers to keep them from causing a fuss about you not wearing the right uniform," said Aria with sympathy.

"What story?"

"I told the teachers that you had undergone some trauma as a child, which was why you were sent to live with your grandfather as you mother refused to accept her husband had brought in someone he shouldn't have to their house. As a result you took to dressing as a boy to 'hide' from the pervert as a self-defense mechanism. However as you started to develop into a young woman to the point it would be impossible to hide, it was decided to 'ease' you back into acting like a normal girl. Starting with the uniform and using the correct facilities while you're in school," explained Aria.

"So basically you expanded on the 'pedophile' story I gave my relatives so the teachers wouldn't say anything about me pretending to be a guy all this time?"

"Considering I backed up the story with actual evidence and got the same teachers who raised the issue with your mother the first time to share what they had noticed, they agreed to let the issue drop so long as you started dressing appropriately," said Aria. "It was going to happen eventually, and you know Uncle Reborn never would have accepted the idea of allowing you to dress as a boy for very long."

Natsume winced. She had almost forgotten that issue, and the fact Reborn was rather close to Aria despite what Luce had done to him and the others.

She wanted to wilt into herself out of habit.

Chrome patted her shoulder with sympathy.

"At least this time you don't have to deal with that old fossil, and I'm sure Aria won't harass you if you make a few mistakes during those boring parties."

Natsume shuddered in disgust.

"Gods, I hated those. And the _lectures_ because I'm a Shintoist and not a Catholic and the fact I wasn't raised in Italy! And don't get me started on the way the guys kept acting and the fact I had to keep the likes of Hibari and your boyfriend on a leash..."

Chrome patted her shoulder in sympathy.

Taki...was completely confused while Aria had a slowly dawning idea of what happened.

The mafia was predominantly Catholic, and the Shinto religion had a slightly different mindset when it came to 'core values'. Add in what she knew of the Ninth Vongola don and his own behavior towards his adopted son, and she could only feel sympathy for Natsume who likely had to deal with his patronizing attitude and the fact he barely respected women as leaders in the first place.

"You poor dear. Fortunately Uncle Reborn is currently on vacation after he trained his last student..."

Natsume openly grimaced at the idea of dealing with Reborn's antics. It had been bad enough the first time, when she didn't really care...but if he showed up _now,_ when she actually wanted to keep the couple she lived with in the dark about the other side of the world... there was no way it wouldn't end badly.

Touko was _not_ like Nana. She wasn't willfully oblivious and she would notice gunfire and explosions happening on a regular basis.

"Yeah... let's keep the King of Chaos as far away from our peaceful town as we can, please?" said Natsume half-pleading.

To say there was no little amount of confusion when a mystery girl was crashed in Natsume's seat in class was an understatement.

Chrome patted her on the back with sympathy... this was going to be a headache-inducing week.

Fortunately, Aria was "kind" enough to share some high-quality alcohol that Natsume promptly hid from Nyanko-sensei...and Touko. She was technically old enough to drink, but she didn't want her Aunt to find out she had it in her room.

It was a miracle she turned a blind eye to the fact her cat sometimes reeked of it.

* * *

"Hey...isn't that Natsume's cousin?" said Nishimura.

Natsume groaned in dismay, before she handed Chrome something. The Mist took one look before understanding hit her.

"What..." started Nishimura, before he realized it was their school ID. Specifically, _Natsume's_ school ID.

There, circled in clear black ink, was the kanji for "female".

Sasada, the class rep, took the ID and stared at it for several seconds after seeing the shocked expression of Natsume's friend. Then she looked at the "mystery" girl in absolute disbelief.

"Natsume... you're a _girl_?" she said in complete shock, loud enough for the entire class to hear.

The uproar over that particular piece of information was pretty impressive...and made Natsume's migraine worse.

"Boss' aunt and her cousin ganged up on her and made her wear the correct uniform. It took some fast talking to keep the teachers from raising a stink when they found out," said Chrome, handing Natsume some aspirin. She downed it without a second thought and without water.

Kitamoto looked at Natsume, before realization hit.

"That girl Tanuma was with at the festival...that was you, wasn't it?"

Natsume nodded without lifting her head.

"She has a major migraine at the moment," said Chrome.

"So are you and Tanuma...?" started Nishimura, keeping his voice down so he didn't cause any more pain.

She shook her head.

"We just ran into each other before the festival started. He was pretty shocked finding out I was a girl too, and Touko had given me some of her old clothes. She knows I can't say no if she asks me to dress like a girl. It's just that she never pressed the issue over the uniform because of several nasty comments the neighbors made. Apparently they had an issue with my grandmother, who used to live around her a while back and I have a really strong resemblance to her," said Natsume tiredly.

"What sort of issue?" asked Sasada.

"Well for starters, she was a bit...flighty. She had a reputation for being in her own world and I know for a fact teenagers used to throw rocks at her for being 'weird'," said Natsume bluntly. "Though it probably didn't help she was a mixed blood. And there weren't many foreigners that came around the area."

"Mixed blood? Was she American?" asked Kitamoto.

Natsume shook her head.

"Half-Italian. Her father was visiting Japan for a bit, ran into Reiko's mother and had an affair with her. He had no idea the woman became pregnant until he came to visit and found out he had a daughter. Which was a problem because he was already married and his wife had recently given birth to his legitmate heir in Italy. So he gave her a pendant in case she needed help and went back to Italy and never spoke of the incident. Her sister only found out after Reiko had died from complications due to childbirth."

It was clear Natsume _really_ didn't care about such ancient history, with how easily she told everyone in class.

"Anyway Aria-nee, who is Reiko's niece, found out about me though her associate who recognized the pendant and called her."

Natsume was just happy the aspirin was kicking in.

The teacher took one look at how miserable she was from the headache and sent her to the nurse's office. She didn't return until lunch.

At least it gave the other students a chance to calm down once the shock of learning her gender wore off...

 _After school..._

Nishimura and Kitamoto didn't know how to react around Natsume, after learning their friend was a _girl_. It would take them a few days to go back to the way things were, though they were considerably less touchy-feely around Natsume. Not that she minded.

So Natsume found it suspicious when she found one of Natori's shikigami messages at her window.

Considering the last few she had picked had essentially dragged her to him, and she was on the second floor, she did the smart thing.

She had Fon remove it from the window, despite being right next to it.

"May I ask why you simply didn't get it yourself?" he asked amused.

"Every time Natori sends one of those things and I pick it up, I always end up dragged," she said flatly. "I would rather not have a nasty fall from the second floor."

Fon's amusement died slightly at that.

"Odd. A basic shikigami like this shouldn't _drag_ people..."

"I have no idea why it happens either, but I didn't want it to become a pattern," said Natsume.

"Well it should be safe to touch now. If it does try to take you anywhere I'll be sure to deal with it."

"Why can't he simply text me? I _did_ give him my number after all..." grumbled Natsume.

Aria had planned to give her a new phone...until Natsume revealed she already had one that had been left in a mist pocket. The expression on Mukuro and Chrome's face when they realized that she still had access to it was hilarious...especially when they reached into their own and found things they had thought lost forever.

So Aria simply put them all on the same network the Giglio Nero used...unaware that Natsume used that as an excuse to blow up the satellites belonging to CEDEF. _All_ of the satellites.

She was a woman. She could hold a grudge forever and from what she saw, Iemitsu hadn't really changed when she altered the timeline.

He deserved the headache of explaining what happened to the satellites and why their communication network had been effectively crippled.

"So what does the note say?" asked Fon.

"He's asking if I want to see an amusement park. Apparently he has two days off."

"Oh-ho, so the man is asking you out on a date?" said Fon with mischief.

"It's not a date. I wouldn't know what to do on one anyway," said Natsume sourly.

"Are you planning to spend time with him in a setting where you are required to actually converse and relax?" asked Fon.

"Yes...?"

"Are you planning to dress up in something other than your usual outfits?"

"I was going to put some of the clothing Aria insisted on buying me in order to fill out my wardrobe..."

"Do you plan to go alone save for yourself and one of the cats?"

"Not really... I know Chrome and Mukuro will likely stalk me anyway once they know where I'm going and I can leave Nyanko with them," replied Natsume. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Along with you and I-Pin."

Fon merely smiled.

"That is the standard definition of a 'date'. Not all outings with someone you like have to be romantic. Sometimes it's just holding hands and a few light kisses while you enjoy the day," said Fon.

Natsume had an odd look on her face.

"Are you sure? Every time I've been on one it was unspeakably awkward as they kept trying to kiss me or invade my personal space."

"Did this happen in Italy?" asked Fon.

"Well yeah, since I couldn't really escape my desk that well and visit Japan as much as I liked..."

"Then there's your answer. Italians are a bit more cavalier when it comes to personal space, whereas Japanese are more reserved," said Fon. "At the very least has he ever given you the impression he would do anything to you?"

Natsume shook her head.

"It's actually relaxing, being around him. I don't have to hide what I see and there's something about him that makes it easy to simply be myself."

Whenever she was around Natori, she never felt as though she had to put up a front. There were secrets between them, but he never pressed the issue.

He didn't see Dame-Tsume. He didn't see Vongola Decimo.

He only saw Natsume Fujiwara, someone who shared the same gift as he did, just with more power behind it.

Fon...had to fight the urge to coo at his Sky.


	12. Chapter 12

If Natori was expecting to find Natsume looking as she usually did, he was in for a very pleasant surprise.

If not for the fact Hiiragi could 'sense' Natsume's power, he never would have found her as easily as he did.

He certainly never thought to see her like _that_.

"Natsume?"

The girl...and it was a girl, turned to face him and he knew he had gotten it right.

Still, he was rather stunned seeing Natsume dressed in a light dress that hugged her curves without being too obvious about it. Her hair was longer too...it just scrapped the nape of her neck and was hanging loose, with a slight curl to it.

The dress was a warm orange that suited her, without being garish and didn't really have much in the way of frills save for some minor embroidery along the trim.

Natsume had clearly gone a nail salon at some point, because he recognized the French manicure on her nails that had a clear varnish on it.

He spotted the familiar pendant around her neck that she had shown Fon before, along with something else that dipped under her collar. Surprisingly she was also wearing earrings, though they were basic studs. Considering he had never seen any marks on her ears before, he suspected she had those recently done. She was wearing fashionable, if highly sensible sandals.

All in all, he was shocked at the change, and he was rather amused by the light blush on her cheeks.

"I take it Touko-san is behind this?"

"More like Aria-nee. Master Fon was able to contact her in Italy, and once she met me she insisted on a complete make-over. Then he went behind my back and told her about the message you sent and...well..."

"I take it Aria is part of the family that your grandmother came from?"

"She's my cousin. But she insisted on being called 'big sister'. Oh, and apparently the ability to 'See' is strong in her family as well...it's just that the Catholic church purged most of them from Europe so she never saw anything before. She comes from a family of strong shamans, which makes me think that the main reason my great-grandfather met Reiko's mother was because they were at a gathering."

"Most likely," agreed Natori. He smiled at her. "You look very beautiful like that."

Natsume's blush got worse, and she hid her eyes briefly behind her bangs.

"I should warn you that there's a strong possibility Aria-nee, Fon, Chrome, Mukuro and Nyanko-sensei are going to be stalking us all day."

Natori blinked, before he chuckled. He could live with an unofficial chaperon. Though he had to ask.

"Why would Master Fon be in on it?"

"For amusement, and because Aria-nee hired him as a bodyguard slash tutor. She wants me to take over her company once I'm older so her daughter doesn't have to live with that looming over her head until much later."

"..."

"On the plus side, my punches are much less sloppy," said Natsume unconcerned. "So it's not too bad."

Natori decided for the sake of his growing headache, he wouldn't ask anymore.

"Shall we enjoy the park, _hime_?" he asked.

"Not you too. It's bad enough Fon insists on calling me that," pouted Natsume.

Natori laughed. He held out his hand. Natsume shyly took it, and he handed over the tickets he bought a day ago.

* * *

 _A few feet away..._

"They make such a cute couple!" squealed Aria. Poor Gamma was stuck babysitting Yuni and I-Pin at the zoo for the day. Fortunately he had a few of Aria's other guardians to help.

"With any luck it won't end like her past 'dates' did," said Mukuro with a snort.

Aria looked at the two Mists, and Mukuro silently handed over his phone.

"It's under the designation 'Dating Disaster'," he said helpfully with far too much amusement. "Though to be fair, those of us who were on stalking duty got our own bit of payback after the date ended for their behavior."

"Considering she mentioned most of those were in Italy, and it's unlikely she would have dated anyone from Asia for fear of them being linked to the Triads, I'm not surprised they ended badly," said Fon.

Aria had to cringe when she saw even a few of the videos. It was clear she was utterly uncomfortable, both in her clothes and with her dates who were entirely too hands on to be really appropriate. Being Italian was _not_ an excuse and they should have backed off when they realized they were making her uncomfortable.

She handed the phone back and they entered the park. Fon was calmly sitting on Aria's shoulder while Mukuro and Chrome kept watch a bit closer.

Since Natsume was _used_ to her guardians stalking her and Natori wasn't likely to sense them, they could get better pictures of the date for Aria to gush over. Well, that and they could change into different people and were fully planning to enjoy their own little date while keeping an eye on their Sky.

They were not expecting to be busted by Hiiragi, when Natori picked up on someone following them.

"What are you doing?" Hiiragi demanded.

"Getting photos for Aria and Touko-san to gush over about how 'cute' Natsume is acting," said Mukuro flatly. "Honestly, your master should be used to paparazzi stalking him... at least these won't end up in some cheap tabloid later."

"Besides... Aria-san has been following us with Fon for a while now," said Chrome, pointing them out. Hiiragi followed it and saw a woman who cheerfully waved at all _three_ of them.

"We're merely acting as discreet chaperons," added Mukuro cheerfully. "After all, our boss is a young lady of good breeding and marriageable age, which means she _needs_ a proper escort. We're just nice enough not to crowd her while we do it."

 _With Natsume and Natori_

She felt ridiculously happy. This was the first time she had gone on a _real_ date where she didn't feel pressured to be something she wasn't.

Even if the most Natori did was gently hold her hand and humor her on which ride to go next, it was nice.

He didn't try anything, and actually respected her space which made her relieved.

"Would you like to try the ferris wheel next?"

"Only if you want to get trapped at the top," said Natsume with amusement. "Knowing my luck, Aria would think it _hilarious_ to trap us up there for at least an hour."

Natori's mouth twitched with amusement. He briefly considered the haunted house, but that place held no real interest to either of them. Mostly because they saw things far scarier on a regular basis. He also discarded the tunnel of love, as he doubted Natsume would be interested in it at all.

Seeing one of the rollar coasters, he hid a smirk and nodded towards them.

Natsume perked up at those.

Unseen by the two, a few photographers were at the park and recognized Natori...and realized very quickly he was on a date with someone they believed to be an unknown up-and-coming actress. After all, she was too attractive for someone to have noticed her before now.

Natsume would be blushing up a storm when, at the end of the date Natori kissed her on the lips...and it ended up caught on camera.

Aria fortunately confiscated those photos, but she did nothing for the rather harmless ones the men had. Besides, this was going to provide a bit of entertainment later.

* * *

Mukuro took _one_ look at the gossip rag which was gushing about Natsume's date before an evil, evil idea occurred to him.

"Mukuro-sama, what are you planning?" said Chrome suspiciously.

"Oh, just some long-term entertainment for later, my dear Chrome," said Mukuro wickedly. He showed her the magazine, and she gave him an odd look.

"They think Bossu is an _actress_?"

"I'm sure Aria would love to hear the idea I have...and I bet Natori would get a kick out of it too once it was explained to him."

Chrome sighed...it was never a good idea to let Mukuro-sama become _bored_.

"What do you have planned?" she asked.

"Remember that 'Horror Movie Survival Guide' Natsume read once and then she started making those comments that had Reborn snorting with amusement whenever she managed to get a movie night going and the theme was cheasy horror films?" said Mukuro mischievously.

Chrome stared at him, before she cottoned on and groaned.

"You're going to put her in a cheasy horror movie and not tell her about it until after it's over, while having it recorded by Ken and Chikusa. Then have Aria produce it for laughs."

"I'm sure Fon would have a good laugh out of it too," said Mukuro snickering. "At least it wouldn't suck as bad as that _Blair Witch Project_ she made us suffer through did."

"...Point. Let's see if Aria would be interested first."

Needless to say Aria was _very_ interested in the idea, if only for amusing blackmail that she could hold over Natsume's head later. Of course a certain troll caught wind of it by accident and decided to watch the show. He had the feeling it was going to be good.

* * *

 _A few weeks later..._

Natori blinked when he saw a rather...odd...trailer for a new horror movie being produced.

It took him a moment to register why it even caught his attention. He generally didn't watch horror movies after all.

"Is that... Natsume?!" he said in shock.

Checking closely, he found it was. It didn't take long for him to make a few calls about the new movie.

On the surface it looked like a generic horror film, one that would likely go straight to DVD after a month or two of screen time.

Then Natori found himself in the rather odd situation of being _kidnapped_ by Aria.

"I heard _someone_ was interested in the movie we're going to be producing."

"How on earth did you convince Natsume to do it?"

"We didn't. Mukuro threw the idea out to me as a joke, recorded her natural reactions to being in a generic horror setting, and then gave it to me so we could cut out the boring parts and edit the good bits. Her retaliation for his little prank was...amusing...to say the least."

And by that Aria meant that Natsume somehow knocked Mukuro out, dressed him up in a very odd girl's school uniform, then handed Chrome a box and told her to "have fun" before locking them both in a room for a few hours.

The yelp of shock and horror was swiftly replaced by noises that made everyone avoid the area for a few hours.

Aria still didn't know what "Bible Black" was, or why Mukuro was so shocked that Natsume knew of it. All she would comment on the series was that it was a supernatural anime with cult themes that was rated for adult audiences only for good reason, since it included outright murder and ritual sacrifices.

Or why Fon started choking on his tea when she flippantly said she "only watched it for the plot".

"Would you like to see it?" asked Aria grinning. "After all, the movie only has Natsume's _natural_ reaction to horror movie cliches, and none of the dialogue is scripted."

"...You do realize amatuer films like that _rarely_ go over well with audiences, right?" he asked.

"Say that to me when you've seen the full thing, and then the edited version we plan to put out in theaters. Natsume has no idea that we recorded it all, or that we plan to produce it like a normal movie. In fact the posters aren't going to show her at all."

Intrigued...and mostly to see if he needed to give Natsume forewarning of what was going to happen, Natori agreed to watch the film.

He had to admit...it wasn't as bad as he feared. It made use of a _lot_ of horror movie cliches, especially from the American films, but Natsume's reaction to them more than made up for their use.

Like the part where she shoved a corpse out of the driver's seat and took over the vehicle, rather than abandon it. Or dipped a shotgun in holy water before blasting the head off a vampire who was bemoaning their choice to become an undead immortal. And he had no idea she knew how to drive a motorcycle like that!

"Has she had stunt training?" Natori asked Aria seriously.

Because some of the moves she pulled on that motorcycle were a bit too close to what he saw from stunt drivers during action movies.

Aria merely smiled, and inwardly laughed because she could see that Natsume learned how to drive a motorcycle from Uncle Skull, who used to _be_ a stunt driver for the circus.

On an unrelated note, Natsume was swiftly earning her driver's license, despite the fact she wouldn't be able to use her new scooter much in the rural area where she lived.

"So in your professional opinion, how do you think people will like the movie?"

"It's different, but not in a way that wouldn't appeal to fans," said Natori after a moment. "If you can clean it up a bit more, I'm sure that people will bring their friends to see it at least. Though you do realize it'll make the rumors about Natsume in the gossip rags true."

"Where do you think Mukuro got the idea from?" said Aria laughing. "Of course he did comment it was a pity that they couldn't catch Natsume singing."

"Natsume sings?" said Natori in surprise.

"From what Chrome and Mukuro said, she's rather good at it and is always picking up soundtracks from movies to listen to. She mostly hums, but when she sings it tends to keep her friends from fighting so much because it means they might miss something. Though oddly enough it never happens when she's drunk," said Aria.

It was one of the few nonviolent ways Natsume had to get her 'guardians' to stop destroying things...besides putting them into instant ice blocks. Considering she never felt comfortable doing it, she was more likely to freeze them in place than to sing.


	13. Chapter 13

Natsume was going to _murder_ Mukuro for this.

"I can't believe you're dating Natori Shuuichi!" said Sasada excitedly.

"I can't believe you've been acting and didn't tell us!" said Nishimura.

Her migraine and annoyance was only rising in proportion to her classmates' excitement.

"I am going to _kill_ that idiot..." said Natsume in irritation.

Chrome looked mostly amused.

"It wouldn't stop him from annoying you."

"I know, but it would feel soooo satisfying," said Natsume with a growl.

Fortunately her growing irritation (and the rather dangerous growl she let loose upon how much she wanted to murder Mukuro at the moment) made everyone back off a little. But they didn't drop the subject.

"Seriously, why didn't you tell us you could act?" asked Kitamoto.

"Because I _wasn't_ acting. Mukuro convinced Aria-nee to drop me in the middle of a mock horror movie setting and then recorded my actual reactions to familiar cliches without telling me what was going on. I only found out _after_ I managed to stumble across them recording," said Natsume sourly.

"Wait... so you would really kick the dead body out rather than freak out over a corpse in the car with you?" said Sasada in shock.

"Or pile drive the killer?!" said Nishimura in disbelief.

"Aria-nee hired a martial artist friend of her to teach me how to fight properly. What better time to put those lessons to use than on a serial killer who was irritating me?" Natsume replied without thinking. " _He_ certainly didn't think it would happen, if the yelp he let out was any indication. Besides, it gave me time to tie him with steel cables."

If she hadn't started suspecting _something_ was up when she recognized the pattern of horror movie cliches, the lack of killing intent when he was attempting to kill her tipped her off that she was being pranked.

Natsume had a rather dark expression on her face.

"Honestly, you would think serial killers would know better than to get on the wrong side of a yandere with martial arts training."

Dead silence. Chrome, when she shared that comment with Mukuro in the next class had to smirk at the looks he got from cackling... out loud, for no apparent reason.

"...Did you just call yourself a yandere?" asked Sasada.

Natsume smiled at the entire class...and suddenly the 'innocence' behind it made everyone shudder. Inwardly she was cackling though, and she fully blamed Reborn for why her originally shy and gentle exterior started to hide a complete and utter demon from hell bent on making others suffer with her when she was pissed off.

In the other classroom, Mukuro shuddered as the familiar feeling of "DOOM" hit him.

* * *

Natsume stared at the tiny figure with a black fedora and adorable little chameleon on his hat.

Reborn stared back, partly in shock but also with tired amusement.

"Dame-Tsume, I don't know what you did but I am tripling your training for the headaches you caused me," he said flatly.

Natsume felt like she should be surprised, but in all honesty she wasn't. She _had_ been very close to Reborn, so it wasn't that shocking he was sent back too.

Instead she did something that amused Aria immensely. She took pictures.

" _I missed you, papa,"_ she said quietly in French.

Reborn, once he got over his surprise at the hug, gently patted her head.

"I hope you brought the blueprints to break the curse with you," said Reborn.

"Do you really think I would have taken it if I hadn't? I wasn't going to make Yuni suffer through the same curse that killed her mother and grandmother," said Natsume. "And it's Natsume now."

Natsume felt only relief when she registered the bond between her and Reborn slip back into place.

"So...how did you pull this off?"

"If Byakuran can pull his alternate self into the same world he's in then I see no reason why the Vongola rings, which hold imprints of all the bosses that were accepted into the throne, couldn't send the memories of the future into my past self. Especially since I came in contact with them as a child. Of course it took a few months for the effects to hit, but I wasn't about to suffer the same childhood twice," said Natsume with a shrug. "Was _not_ expecting Luce to be my great-aunt though."

"You do remember that by doing that, Byakuran effectively destroyed that alternate his other self came from, right?" said Reborn.

"That world wasn't one I wanted to live in. Besides, at that point death was a relief for her," replied Natsume.

Natsume didn't even react when Reborn promptly claimed one of her shoulders.

"You do realize there's no way you're ever going to escape me now, right?"

"Like I was ever able to escape you the first time," she said amused.

"Wait... you're going to break the curse?" asked Fon.

"We just need to get in touch with Talbot and the Vindice. Besides, I know how impatient Reborn is now that he knows who Aria's 'adorable little sister' is."

Reborn merely smirked at that.

"I have trained you well."

"Now Natsume-chan has _two_ Suns!" said Aria in amusement.

Reborn looked at Natsume.

"Two Suns?"

She managed to avert her eyes so she didn't look at him.

"Her new boyfriend happens to be an Inactive Sun on the verge of going active, he just needs a minor push for him to become one of hers," said Fon.

"Boyfriend?!" said Reborn, staring at her. "Since when do you know anything about dating?"

Fon and Aria took far too much amusement in the tone Reborn had hearing _that_.

"I still don't get why Fon choked on his tea when you made that comment about watching that series for the plot," said Aria.

Fon snorted.

"No one watches _Bible Black_ or any of the sequels for the plot," he said dryly.

Reborn gave Natsume an odd look.

"How the hell do you know about that series?"

"Because Belphegor made a flippant comment to Hayato one night and I got curious as to what he was talking about," deadpanned Natsume. "The plot wasn't half-bad."

"Right," said Reborn very dryly. Even _he_ knew what that series was about.

Aria was confused, and resolved to see what series they were talking about. Needless to say she looked at Natsume with a new light when she did.

On the plus side, she had some relief that Natsume wasn't as ignorant as she had been lead to believe.

"So who's her boyfriend?" asked Reborn.

Fon smirked.

"Natori Shuuichi."

Reborn gave her an amused look.

"Did your obsession with the 'moving tattoo' really go that far?" he asked.

"It's not a tattoo," said Fon. "He has an ayakashi that lives under his skin that can move about freely."

Reborn turned to stare at him in shock.

"You mean that thing is real?!"

"I told you I wasn't seeing things!" said Natsume in triumph.

"Don't talk back," he said, giving her a 'light' headslap from his spot on her shoulder.

"And you said I was under too much stress, to see a lizard that wasn't there," she snarked. "If it wasn't for Mukuro confirming he could see it too, then everyone would have thought I had finally gone crazy."

"So you finally decided to act on that crush you had on him."

Natsume stared at him.

Of course, it was Reborn. Obviously he didn't feel like seeing his student suffer more than she had by bringing it up. She was already stressed enough.

Reborn smirked at her, though there was a gentleness behind it.

"You do realize that now I _have_ to see if this Natori is worthy of dating you."

Natsume felt like she should warn Natori, just a little.

* * *

 _Shuuichi-san, there's a troll that's heading your way intent on testing you. He can't see ayakashi, so feel free to have Hiiragi-san and the others prank him to hell and back. I just thought you should have a little warning before the chaos started. -Natsume_

Natori blinked at the very, very odd text Natsume had just sent him. Though it made perfect sense when a toddler in a fedora that fit the basic description Master Fon had once given a 'friend' of his by the name of Reborn showed up on one of the rare times he had a week off.

He had been planning to ask Natsume out for a date in a few days too.

"Ciaossu. I've been informed you're the first man actually brave enough to date my student. I'm here to see if you're capable of surviving half the things that follow her around like a deranged puppy eager for attention."

He said this with entirely too much dark amusement and far too many teeth.

Natori had a bad feeling already. Fortunately he had his shiki to distract the 'troll' as Natsume had called him.

"If you mean the trouble she keeps getting into with the ayakashi because she has a problem saying no to requests for help, I'm already familiar with it."

"...Actually I was referring to something else entirely, though it seems I'll need to step up her training again. A boss shouldn't walk into trouble _that_ blindly."

Natori could only feel sympathy and a small amount of pity for Natsume by the end of it. No wonder she had such odd quirks, if Reborn was her tutor! The man was a _nightmare_ , but woe help you if he thought you might hurt one of his students in a way they couldn't recover from.

He was just glad that the troll (and Natsume was right, he _was_ a complete troll) only stayed five days and apparently deemed him 'acceptable enough'.

Now why did it feel like he had gone through the world's most unpredictable and subtly overprotective father's scrutiny?

Very strange.

Natsume took one look at his expression, before deep sympathy filled her face.

"Where did you get fifty-year-old whiskey?" he asked.

"Aria. When Reborn mentioned 'testing' you, we both agreed that you would deserve it if you managed to survive his antics. She has a bunch of alcohol stored on her estate that is just taking up space and she didn't mind letting one go."

"Your tutor is a demon worse than any ayakashi I've ever met," said Natori flatly, accepting the booze.

"That's only because he was making sure you weren't going to hurt me. He's a bit less of a pain to deal with if he actually likes you."

"...Less how?" asked Natori cautiously.

"The odds of being caught up in his chaos are lessened enough that you're only likely to be nailed by some minor humiliation, rather than the full brunt of it. And he's less likely to contemplate shooting you someplace permanent and more likely to simply graze you in warning," deadpanned Natsume. "He's a complete and utter ass, but once you get to know him he tends to grow on you. Mostly."

"You're taking his antics rather well."

"Let me put it this way...if your choice is a hard place and Reborn, who will not take no for an answer, it's easier to deal with the hard place," said Natsume with a sigh. "That being said, when he isn't being a complete bastard he's actually quite supportive and nice in his own way. He's just been hurt for too long to let people in easily."

She never would have become Vongola Decimo in that other timeline otherwise, if Reborn hadn't been the one sent to train her. And while he was a complete bastard, he was still a better father figure than Iemitsu ever bothered to be in his own chaotic way.

He wouldn't admit it, but he thought of Natsume as the daughter he never had, just as much as she viewed him as her grumpy papa.

Seeing Natori didn't get it, Natsume had a tired look on her face.

"A parent doesn't have to be perfect for a child to love them... often the child is happy with them simply _being_ there and giving them the encouragement to move forward when they're terrified out of their wits. Even if that parent is a complete and utter pain in the ass in general."

Understanding filled Natori's eyes. A gentle smile crossed his face.

"Then I'll have to make sure your _papa_ never has a reason to target me, won't I?"

Natsume smiled back, before chuckling lightly.

"If you ever did anything to warrant that, you'd never have to deal with Reborn."

Because he'd have to deal with a pissed off Natsume first, and considering how laid back she was about things in general he would have to work to piss her off to that extent.

Natori...was slowly coming to the realization that Natsume had a rather large and very protective family waiting in the wings ready to keep her from getting into too much trouble with her insistence of helping others. Not that he minded much...he found Natsume's attitude and innocence very refreshing, never mind her pragmatic personality. Yes, it was a headache and a half when her kind heart got her into trouble, but she was never afraid to step up to the plate and actually _help_ in resolving the issue, rather than making her friends and family do it for her.

Natori hoped the odd warmth he felt around Natsume never faded. It was a nice feeling that he fell back on after a rough case when he needed to remember something good after dealing with so much evil in the world.

"You know I think you might get along with Reborn, once you get to know him. He has a few odd gifts of his own and he likes lizards."

"What sort of odd gifts?" asked Natori.

"He can speak to reptiles and insects," deadpanned Natsume. "He's also a genius mathmatician with several published papers under psuedonyms. And don't get me started on the cosplay..."

"...He speaks to reptiles and insects?"

"I've seen him _covered_ in bugs more than once and I swear he gets information from the weirdest places," admitted Natsume. "Leon is a lot nicer than his human partner."

"Leon?"

"The chameleon on his hat. His name is Leon and he's a shape-changing chameleon. Makes you wonder where Reborn found such an odd ayakashi."


	14. Chapter 14

Natsume was _not_ in a happy mood. She had been minding her own business when she stumbled across a scene straight out of a horror movie...or one of Mukuro's illusions.

The thing that pissed her off the most though? This time it wasn't an ayakashi causing the trouble, but a _human_.

There was no way she would mistake that shadow for anything less. Not with such dark and cruel Storm flames.

At least they weren't in Discord, which was about the ONLY good thing about them.

"Natsume?" said Natori in surprise.

"There's a problem. A human has been going around stirring up the ayakashi in the area and I don't even _want_ to know what they need this much blood for."

"...Have you seen the woman from the gathering, or a man wearing long hair and an eyepatch recently?" asked Natori.

"I haven't seen her, though I did see a shadow that felt human."

"Human?" repeated Natori.

Natsume shuddered.

"I don't know who they were...but their aura felt _vile_. And despite evidence to the contrary I _can_ tell the difference between someone with spiritual powers and an ayakashi."

Mostly because she had NEVER met and ayakashi with flames, latent or inactive, which all exorcists or spiritually aware had.

"...It might have been Matoba. I heard he was in the area and he's already expressed an interest in my 'cute apprentice'," said Natori.

"Of all the times for Fon to be visiting his grandson... at least I-Pin went with him," said Natsume in irritation. Then she remembered something... the retainers of her great-grandmother's clan that had started to filter in to the town and were already setting up shop.

"You're thinking of doing something troublesome, aren't you?" asked Natori smiling.

"Yeah, I am," admitted Natsume. She looked in the general area of those foul Storm flames. "And I have the worst feeling a lot of things are going to come to light after this."

Natori smiled at her.

"You know if you're ever troubled by something, I will always listen."

"In this case it's less something troubling me and more something that would have come out eventually. Especially if our relationship progresses past where we have it now," said Natsume tiredly.

She knew it had to happen, but that didn't make it any less difficult to explain and pray that Natori didn't leave.

She had a few calls to make.

* * *

Mukuro and Chrome were waiting for her, partly out of support but also to help cover in case Natori took things badly. While she got the tea ready, Reborn showed up as well, though in his case it was likely to explain about the Arcobaleno curse which would hopefully be broken before Christmas. They were having a bit of difficulty convincing Mammon, formerly Viper, that the cure was for real.

"You wanted to tell me something?" asked Natori.

Natsume decided to start off with something he likely _had_ heard of, since Flames were a bit of a Western term.

"Have you heard of Soul Fire?" asked Natsume.

Natori blinked, the lizard under his skin moving around his face.

"You mean the force that certain exorcists can use that look like flames of varying colors?" he asked carefully. "I've heard rumors about it, but never seen it."

Natsume looked to Mukuro, who smirked. His trident blazed with indigo colored flame.

"The technical term is Dying Will Flames, though to civilians it's also called Soul Fire," he said smiling. "It's strictly limited to humans though."

Natsume kept eye contact with Natori as she explained what Dying Will Flames were, how they were _very_ useful against ayakashi so long as you never showed it around humans who didn't already know (and a very thorough warning about the Vindice), and the background of where they came from.

Then came the part she was dreading. Natori believed her about flames, but it was the part about the curse that she had been openly dreading.

Reborn went into a factual account of what the Arcobaleno were, what the curse actually _did_ (having gotten it from Kawahira at one point and backed it up with trusted historical evidence), and the fact that there were almost always seven of them.

The only reason that there was an abnormal amount of cursed this time around could be attributed to Colonello's abrupt interference at the last second. No one anticipated that his resonance with Lal would have lead to _him_ being chosen or for her flames to be warped.

So you could imagine the shock Natsume got when, upon hearing _she_ had the Sky pacifier which Reborn openly admitted rarely lasted long because they often chose to retain their true ages and thus died rather young, Natori's hands started blazing with golden flames.

He stared at his own hands in shock.

"What..."

Reborn snorted.

"Of course your interest in Natsume and hearing about the curse she's under would push you towards Activating your flames."

Natori looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"You're like Reborn... a Sun. I could tell right away you were on the verge of going Active, but I didn't want to drag you into the underworld without any reason to. Once you awaken your flames, you're automatically placed under the watch of the Vindice who take keeping them secret from the normal people _very_ seriously. Never mind the fact that the criminal underworld has it in their heads that anyone who activates their flames is automatically fair game to being dragged into their groups," said Natsume tiredly.

Seeing the look in his eyes, Mukuro smirked.

"Natsume has already staked her claim on you, which means you're under the protection of the Giglio Nero famiglia. Once they find out you're already attached to a family they'll leave you alone for the most part. So long as you don't use your flames overtly, you should be fine," said Mukuro.

"What about this curse you mentioned?"

"It should be broken by Christmas. The only reason I didn't bother removing it before was partly because I didn't have access to the necessary people or materials, and because I didn't think it was important enough to alert certain factions of my existence again," said Natsume.

That calmed Natori down.

"On an unrelated note, Fon did confirm that those with Active flames have a stronger affinity towards certain spells...and the propery of a Sun is 'activation', which means that your spells should get a power boost after this," said Natsume.

"You never did say which flame you had, just that it was very rare and orange."

"Natsume has the 'royal' flame, which is Sky. It's a composite of the other six and those with it are considered 'nobility' among the underworld. They're often found in leadership positions, though recent bad habits result in fake guardian bonds because they shove Elements onto Skies with no regard towards Harmony at all," said Reborn. "Her flames allow her to draw in the other six into a whole, almost like a spiritual glue...which is the _only_ reason that pineapple haired brat isn't more homicidal than he already is."

"Oya, I heard something rude just now," said Mukuro, eye twitching with annoyance.

Reborn merely smirked at him.

"There is one thing I don't get... you speak as if you've known them for years, but as far as I've been able to find out you've been with relatives and dealing with ayakashi on the sidelines."

Natsume thought of how to phrase this. Then she thought of a believable way to explain things without going into too much detail.

"I came into an artifact that stores imprints of it's owners when I was a child. The man who had it tried to seal my powers, but as a result my Sight awakened at full blast rather than gradually, which is part of the reason my mother sent me away. The problem is that I _was_ one of the owners in another time, so I got hit with several memories of my other self. Though I wasn't expecting Reborn or the others to somehow be dragged along with me."

All perfectly true without going into far too much detail about the Tri-Ni-Sette or how the Vongola were the 'caretakers' of the linear time-space axis.

Natsume suspected the main reason Byakuran lost his mind was because he stole the Mare rings from the Giglio Nero, who were the rightful owners and didn't have the required bloodline to handle the information overload. That and a natural predisposition.

Either way she was rather happy when Natori didn't try to leave, and harmonized with her within hours of going active. Reborn was her _official_ Sun Guardian, but at least now she wouldn't have to hide as much from Natori.

She had been through enough crap in her life that she wanted to be selfish for once.

She could only hope Natori felt the same way, but she wasn't about to press her luck.

* * *

Feeling Natori's arm wrap around her waist and pulling her away from the attack that came from her left, she looked up at him.

"Thanks."

"Careful," he said with a light smile, before he frowned at the ayakashi. "I didn't take you to be the sort to attack humans."

"He's a new servant. You're rather attached to your apprentice," said Matoba. His long hair barely covered an odd eyepatch that had spells written on it.

"She's not my apprentice. She's my girlfriend," said Natori flatly.

"Oh?" said Matoba, looking at her with dark interest now. "A bit young, isn't she?"

Natsume's smile was full of dark intent.

"What kind of idiot comments on a girl's age so blatantly? Are you _trying_ to get slapped?" she shot back.

Natori couldn't help the snort of amusement that escaped him.

He would also never forget how _catty_ Natsume suddenly became or the way she had Matoba _cringe_ by the end of their first proper meeting.

It was absolutely hilarious and he would treasure that particular memory for a while.

Natsume squeaked, as the second the irritating exorcist was out of their sight Natori kissed her on the cheek.

"That was entirely too amusing and makes me wonder how much fun you would have at the boring gatherings I keep having to go to for my career."

"Were you serious? About me being your girlfriend?"

Natori smiled.

"Did you really think I would joke about something like that? Besides, it took me _forever_ to shut my manager up about it, since everyone thought you were an up-and-coming actress or some fan girl that managed to trick me into a date," said Natori. "He didn't actually believe me about the fact you wouldn't broadcast details about our date to the amusement park until he realized that there wasn't a single interview with the usual sources for a full month after it, or anyone claiming to be the 'mystery girl'."

At least none that could be proven anyway.

"That being said, I have a sneaking suspicion the recent attacks are all _his_ fault, either because he's behind it or he's the one that they're targeting," said Natsume.

It was clear she had a very ill opinion of the other exorcist. It was a good thing she had started hiding the Book of Friends inside her Mist pocket, because that man was the _worst_ sort of person to learn of it's existence.

The thought of what he would do should he ever get his hands on it would give her nightmares for some time.

Natsume felt rather _vindicated_ when her suspicion was confirmed after hearing the entire mess was caused by a former exorcist pissed at the jerk who commented on her age because one of his 'servants' had eaten the woman's shiki.

If one of those broken ayakashi had eaten Rin or any of her friends, she would have been pissed as hell too!

Natsume stared down the big ayakashi, who Natori was planning to seal again, and glared.

She began to pour flames into her special rosary beads until they began to glow white hot from the heat. Then they began to shine brightly from an internal light and _changed_ right before her eyes and the eyes of everyone there.

They looked like tear drops with daggers at the end, and were a rusty color that fortunately didn't look too much like blood.

"That's the first evolution of the divine beads!" said Nyanko in shock. He never expected them to unlock at a time like this!

The youkai that had been looming towards them in order to devour them and free itself properly shied away from the light that the beads were giving off.

Natsume's hands flew into a series of signs that had been drilled into her by the family retainers (three of which were chosen _specifically_ to insure the heir or heirress knew how to cast the family spells properly and were sworn with special oaths before being taught themselves) and began to cast the strongest binding spell she knew that wouldn't require a lethal sacrifice in order to be placed.

Combined with the newly upgraded beads, and the fact she had the power to back it up, the ayakashi didn't stand a chance.

Unfortunately, that little showing had the side effect of making the Matoba clan _very_ interested in her. And not because she was able to gain the allegiance of a powerful youkai like Nyanko-sensei _without_ binding him.

On the bright side, she could at least tell her teachers that she had managed to successfully cast one of the more difficult seals on her first try.

They already approved of her relationship with Natori, mostly because _he_ came from a line of exorcists, even if the main line was mostly in dormancy save for him. The fact he wasn't trying to bed her at the first chance he had despite the fact she was of marrying age spoke well of his personality.


	15. Chapter 15

Reborn looked at the pacifier in the box with no little amount of relief. Nearby he could sense the others were in a similar state of shock/relief. Somehow, Talbot and Verde had managed to recreate the blueprints Natsume had on her before her 17th birthday, rather than Christmas as they original estimated.

There was also no small amount of vindictive glee and amusement from Natsume's actions the _second_ the curse was transferred to it's new "host".

Natsume punched Checkerface, or rather Kawahira so hard that he would swear she had managed to break his jaw. If he didn't know any better he'd also swear he heard the Vindice chuckle darkly when she did it too, but they had every reason to hate the demi-god as much as the now former Arcobaleno did. More so, even, because they were still suffering from the backlash of surviving the curse!

Reborn eagerly took to sitting on Natsume's shoulder. After all, with any luck he wouldn't have much of a chance to do so in the near future.

 _In the Giglio Nero mansion..._

Natsume put the heir ring, which would prepare her for the full power of the Mare rings on her right hand. The only downside was that she would have to deal with socializing with a pit of sharks who were all eager to meet the new heir of the famiglia _and_ the now former Sky Arcobaleno, since Aria openly admitted to finding the girl.

The news that the curse had been broken would circulate soon enough.

"Feel like meeting Dino all over again?" asked Reborn.

"It would be nice to meet Dino-nii. Personally I'd like to see his reaction to Shuuichi. I swear they must be long lost cousins or something," said Natsume.

"You may be right," admitted Reborn. Even _he_ had noticed a strong resemblance between the two, which he hadn't before. Then again, he had never been in close proximity to the exorcist before now.

As it was, Dino took to his self-proclaimed "little sister" just as quickly as he had the first time. There was an odd double-take for a split second, which lead her to suspect he had memories as well, or at least echoes of them.

What really threw her off was meeting Federico Vongola for the first time. The man was about ready to take the title of Vongola Decimo, and she wished him the best. Better someone who actually wanted the title than her!

Though she had her suspicions when he commented on the fact that it had been a white wolf of indeterminate origins that had saved him from becoming bones a second time. Either way it had been the wake-up call he had needed to get off his ass and become a proper contender for the title.

(As it was, Federico and Xanxus were tag-teaming against their 'father' in order to discreetly force the issue of succession. Timoteo had held the reigns for long enough and it was wearing him thin, regardless of what he might think of the matter. Considering the comments made by the Alliance dons, it wouldn't be long now.)

What no one had warned her or prepared her for was meeting young Tsunayoshi Sawada, the 'only' child of Iemitsu Sawada. One look at him was all she needed to know about him.

The almost teenager was her _brother_. Her full blood brother who _had not existed in her original timeline_.

Fortunately she had something to distract her from the potential disaster that was Iemitsu's nonexistent parenting skills.

And his name was Lambo, the adorably obnoxious little cow who had loved his nee-san to the point of actually _behaving_.

He had taken one look at her, broke free of his very unhappy minders, and all but tackled her.

"I am so sorry about this," said Bianchi, hissing at Lambo under her breath, but nothing she did would remove the child's hands from around Natsume's leg.

Natsume smiled in a maternal manner, before gently unlatching Lambo from her leg...only to scoop him up so he could wrap his arms around her neck properly.

"It's fine. Even I can see the poor thing is lonely, and this party is unbearably stuffy for a child," said Natsume with ease.

Lambo absolutely refused to leave her side, much to the dismay of the Bovino don.

Natsume knew from the expression...and the fact they had the _gall_ to send Lambo after REBORN of all people on what would have been a suicide mission if Reborn didn't have a strict policy of not killing children if possible... that Lambo was likely to have a _very_ miserable couple of months if she allowed him to return to his famiglia.

Fortunately there was a solution to that, and Aria happened to like children. She had taken the inclusion of I-Pin as a given at this point, as the little girl was inseperable from Yuni who thought of her as a sister.

Which was why Natsume walked over to where Fon and I-Pin were, knowing that the Bovino don was watching the entire thing with a less than happy gaze.

Something told her Lambo remembered a lot more than Dino had. He had been quite close to her in the last life as well.

Lambo brightened when he saw I-Pin.

"Ah, Broccoli Monster!" said I-Pin. The poor thing was terribly nearsighted and wasn't up to wearing contacts just yet.

"Tail head!" said Lambo with equal enthusiasm.

I-Pin puffed up in annoyance, which had Natsume trying not to laugh.

"I think these two would have more fun playing in the other room with Yuni, wouldn't you agree? This party is far too dull for children."

Fon blinked and realized her plan before smiling in agreement. He turned to I-Pin and spoke quietly in Mandarin, which had the girl perking up.

It hadn't taken much for Lambo to unlatch himself from Natsume... on the agreement that he would get grape candies if he behaved for Fon and didn't cause too much of a mess... once he was in the room.

Natsume made a beeline for the Bovino don.

She didn't particularly like him for how he treated Lambo as an annoyance.

"Signora Nero, what a pleasure to meet you properly!" he said politely. It didn't disguise the greed or the power hungry expression in his eyes.

Natsume made a bit of polite talk before casually bringing up Lambo. She hid her anger at the way he put the child down. Lambo was lonely and needed someone to pay him actual attention for him to flourish. The fact he learned Japanese so quickly proved he had a brain under that fluffy hair of his.

The saddest part? All it had taken to get the Bovino don to dump his nephew on the Giglio Nero was to mention that Lambo was closest in age to Yuni, who was already showing signs of being a strong Sky like her mother and aunt. Which meant that if Lambo played his cards right, he could become Yuni's Lightning Guardian and provide an "in" with the rising power of the Cosa Nostra, as the Vongola's power base was swiftly starting to wane under Timoteo's dreadful mishandling of it and Iemitsu's general incompetence.

Lambo didn't care, he was just happy to have his "nee-san" back. Even if he wasn't going to be her Lightning this time around.

She refused to be stuck with a Guardian under the age of ten like last time!

* * *

 _Three weeks later..._

It was official. The double takes that resulted in having Natori around when Dino came to visit Tokyo for a business deal were _hilarious_.

Natsume could already see the paparazzi taking photos of the two.

"I swear we need to do a DNA test to see if you two are related. There's no way such a strong resemblance is _just_ a coincidence!" said Natsume.

Natori looked at Dino for a moment, before silently conceding her point.

"It _is_ possible. I know I had an aunt who spent quite a bit of time in Europe, but the family suddenly quit talking to her for some reason shortly before World War Two ended."

"I bet you anything she ran into Daniela or another Sky, ended up waking her soul fire and then married into the mafia," said Natsume dryly.

Dino looked rather shocked Natsume would say that in such an open setting...until he noticed the two Mists nearby with smug looks.

"Mukuro and Chrome will keep anyone from hearing what we _want_ them to hear, so you can speak freely," said Natsume. "And Shuuichi is one of my Suns."

Dino noticed she called the older man by his first name.

"How long have you two been dating?"

"Officially? At least half a year now. Unofficially I've known Natsume for a bit longer than that," said Natori. "She only recently came clean about the soul fire though."

Normally he wouldn't be able to continue acting, since he was now an Active Sun. However he was under Natsume's protection, and he only ever used his soul fire when he was dealing with ayakashi, most of which took place _away_ from outside observers as they could get quite violent.

Which meant he had far more leeway than most civilians who recently gained their flames. The fact Reborn had claimed the spot as Natsume's Sun helped as well, since the hit man could deal with all the social niceties of being a Guardian while Natori focused on his day job.

(On an unrelated note, it turned out Dino and Natori _were_ related. They were second cousins in fact.)

Natsume had a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. It only got worse when she answered the phone and Reborn was on the other end.

" _Federico was attacked. He lived, but his ability to use Flames have almost completely be destroyed. There's no way he can become Decimo and Xanxus is being implicated for the attack."_

"What."

" _Considering Timoteo's stance on Xanxus and the fact he only gives lip service to treating him like a son, never mind the unfortunate luck of Federico being in a medical coma, there is a strong chance that he will have the Vindice come and arrest him. While he managed to avoid being frozen this time, there's no telling what damage being sent to Vindicare will do to him,"_ said Reborn somberly.

And that was without going into what the Varia would do if that happened.

Natsume felt her blood run cold, but the part of her that Reborn had coaxed into life, the mindset of a proper Sky and boss was still working just fine.

"Reborn, contact Viper. Tell them that the Giglio Nero are willing to offer Xanxus and his _bonded_ Elements sanctuary until Timoteo either gets his head out of his ass and properly investigates what happened or Federico wakes up and tells us what he remembers. Make sure the Alliance _knows_ that we suspect there to be foul play involved geared towards completely disrupting the Vongola succession and that it's possible one of us had a vision that said Xanxus might be innocent of the crime. However if he _was_ responsible we'll turn him over to the Vindice personally," said Natsume firmly.

You could feel the pride in Reborn's voice as he confirmed her orders.

Natsume sighed.

This was a god's-damned mess. And the worst part was that she had a pretty good idea who the damn instigator was too.

If it was Daemon, then secret be damned she was going to drag that blasted Mist out of wherever he was hiding and give him the tongue-lashing from _hell_ and then find a way to bring Elena out of whatever afterlife she had gone to so that his ex-wife could kick his ass for the rest of eternity! Hell, she'd equip the ghost with steel-toed boots and give her a list of ways to rip that fool's ego back down to size with just words!

If Daemon _wasn't_ behind this new headache, then she was going to find out who _was_ and make them suffer. Slowly. Painfully. With as much agony and bloodshed as possible so as to serve as warning for any other idiots who decided to make her life needlessly complicated.

She was the Giglio Nero heirress this time around...like _hell_ was she getting roped in leading with the Vongola twice!

As if sensing her bloodthirsty mood, Mukuro called her.

" _What happened?"_

" _Federico was attacked and his flames so badly damaged he can't become Decimo. They suspect Xanxus is the culprit,"_ she replied in Italian, her fury clear even over the phone.

" _Shit. There's no way Xanxus would actually attack his brother, not when installing him as Decimo would be the best way to throw his 'father' off the throne,"_ said Mukuro.

" _I'm offering him sanctuary and if necessary we might have to intercede with the Vindice until this gets cleared up."_

" _What if it's Spade behind this?"_ asked Mukuro, his hatred of the ghost evident.

" _Then you and Chrome get to kick his ass while I bring Elena from whatever afterlife she ended up in...and then I get to ream the bastard a new one before setting his wife on him,"_ deadpanned Natsume. _"I am_ not _leading those bastards twice!"_

That done, Natsume almost crashed on her bed.

This was a mess and a half, and she just _knew_ her original name was going to be blown wide open. And that the Vongola would try _something_ , especially if Federico really was out of the running. No way was she allowing them to put her in the position to become Decimo, or her younger brother! No child should have that forced on them!


	16. Chapter 16

Natsume strode into the Giglio Nero mansion where Xanxus and his four bonded Elements were staying. Apparently Levi was just a normal sycophant...he wasn't bonded to the Wrath like Squalo, Lussuria, Belphegor and Viper were.

"This way," said Gamma.

Aria was not happy, but she agreed to house the Varia boss and his Elements once Natsume explained things to her.

She wasn't sure if Natsume really _did_ have a vision or not, but the Ninth was entirely too eager to toss his son to the Vindice just to make all of this go away and before Xanxus got it in his head to take Federico's place.

Natsume looked Xanxus dead in the eye. He was furious (at being implicated in such a cowardly attack on his own brother), angry (that his 'father' was clearly planning to hand him over to the Vindice), and worried (about Federico's condition).

But most of all was a sort of dark curiosity as to why the Giglio Nero heiress and former Sky Arcobaleno had been so swift to offer a bastard like him sanctuary.

He had never met the girl after all, and he had no idea why she would offer him assistance in clearing his name.

Natsume sighed.

"I _know_ you aren't the one behind the attack. It's too public, for one thing."

Lussuria snorted in spite of themselves.

"No way the boss is behind the attack," said Squalo. "He loves Federico and was one of his strongest supporters for when he became Decimo."

"Xanxus, is there _anyone_ who would have anything to gain from implicating you in such a sloppy and obvious set-up?"

Xanxus thought that one over.

"Iemitsu might. He might be out of the running but his son is bloodline and young enough to be turned into a puppet leader. And he hates me, which is bonus."

"If he _is_ the one behind this I fully intend to insure Tsunayoshi is _not_ made a puppet. Even if it means coming clean about who I am to the rest of the mafia," deadpanned Natsume. "That being said if I find out that braying jackass caused this mess I am going to beat the ever living shit out of him and enjoy it far too much."

"Voi! What the fuck does that mean?!"

"I'm saying I will take entirely too much enjoyment from ripping my _sperm donor's_ perfect little lie apart, starting with removing my younger brother from his custody, since his wife has already proven to have an inability to care for anyone who shows any sort of supernatural powers properly."

Dead silence.

"Are you saying that _you're_ Tsume Sawada, Iemitsu's missing daughter?" said Mammon sharply in shock.

Natsume smirked.

"Well grandfather didn't like the name 'Tsume' for a girl, and he thought it amusing enough to call me by my grandmother's maiden name. None of his relatives ever knew it was a nickname, and you could imagine my surprise learning that my mother was related to the Giglio Nero through her mother, who happened to be the previous Sky Arcobaleno's bastard older half-sister. I can give you a blood sample to compare to Iemitsu and his son if you like to prove it," said Natsume smugly.

She knew they would definitely be testing her claim with their own methods.

"Why did you offer us sanctuary?"

"You mean besides to piss off that sanctimoneous bastard Timoteo who won't even bother to do a proper investigation simply because he can't see past his own bullshit to see an obvious set-up when it's prancing around in front of him?" she deadpanned. "I know for a _fact_ you wouldn't have done it. You might hate the Ninth and Iemitsu, but you are _loyal_ to the Vongola despite not being bloodline. And the best way to accomplish making the Vongola strong again would mean _insuring_ Federico became Decimo so that you can throw out the trash infesting it and throw Iemitsu out as External Adviser."

"How do you know I'm not bloodline?"

"For one thing, you look _nothing_ like the Ninth, or any of his sons. Not to mention it's very suspicious when you properly look at your personal history. Why on earth would someone as powerful and rich as the Ninth Vongola don break his marriage vows for a nameless prostitute, much less one from the slums? Never mind the fact that if he had, then there's no way someone _wouldn't_ have talked about him being there or what he could have been doing, which would have drawn attention to your existence a lot sooner," said Natsume bluntly. "And don't get me started on the fact that the timelines simply don't match... if one were to look at where he was during the general timeline of your possible conception, there's simply no feasible way for him to be your actual birth father. Ergo, you are adopted, but have potential ties to the Vongola through an ancestor or two."

Xanxus stared her down, and she didn't break eye contact despite how intense it was.

"...Where the hell have you been all my life, and why is it that you're the first damn person to make actual sense?" complained Xanxus.

Natsume smiled.

"Like hell was I going to get roped into the Vongola succession, especially after Iemitsu convinced the Ninth to seal my flames when I was only _five_. It was a miracle I attracted the attention of something strong enough to remove it without doing any further damage and help to hide me long enough for Aria-nee to find me and name me her heir."

"Doesn't explain why you offered me sanctuary, or to my Elements," said Xanxus.

However he was considerably calmer than he had been since hearing the news about his brother and that he was the primary suspect.

"Because you've been getting the short end of the stick for far too long, and it's about time _someone_ told the Ninth where to shove that damn cane of his," said Natsume simply. "As I said before, I know you wouldn't have done this... at least not so blatantly where everyone would _think_ you were the culprit. You're too smart to do something on a level of Stupid only Iemitsu has managed to accomplish. And I'll happily intercede with the Vindice should it come to that to prove it."

Natsume walked up to Xanxus, and gently put her hand on his cheek.

"You are not a monster, and even you deserve a chance for things to go right for once," said Natsume gently.

The feeling of her Sky wrapping around him, but not trying to dominate him, was enough to make Xanxus relax. She could tell it was causing the rest of his Elements to relax too, mostly because she was _openly_ planning to fight the Ninth for someone she barely knew. A man they all called Boss without a second thought.

"Are you sure this is wise?" asked Aria.

"Xanxus might be angry with the Ninth, but he would never kill his brother. This is too _reckless_ for him, and for all his faults he does love the Vongola. I refuse to let that old man's complacency and foolishness cause any more damage than it already has."

"You do realize you will be exposed as Iemitsu's daughter."

"I don't care. It was going to come out eventually, and it's not like they can force me to become Vongola Decimo when everyone knows I'm part of your famiglia now," said Natsume. Her eyes saddened. "He doesn't deserve to be treated like a feral beast simply because the Ninth is going senile."

Aria could feel the empathy Natsume had for Xanxus.

"He's going to suffer through house arrest until this gets cleared up. Otherwise the Vindice won't hesitate to arrest him on sight."

"Considering the alternative, it's still an improvement. At least here the Ninth can't entrap him so that they can ship him off to Vindicare and forget about him," said Natsume. She scowled. "He took a feral tiger cub and tried to force it into a tame house cat."

Aria was silent, however she would support Natsume in an effort to get to the bottom of this mystery.

* * *

 _A week later..._

"Voi... Boss, you're not going to believe this," said Squalo in shock.

Xanxus took the paper which had the DNA results from their 'host'. He stared in disbelief.

"She was telling the truth?" he said in shock.

There in plain black and white was a match to Iemitsu Sawada and his son Tsunayoshi.

"There's more. Mammon's been able to confirm her story about the old fart. There were documents showing the Ninth visited when she would have been around four or five, with them returning a week or so later. And it gets better... you won't believe how she managed to slip out of the crappy spy net Iemitsu has on his 'family'," said Squalo with dark amusement.

"Something tells me it's going to be good, so spill."

"She told the civvies that the old bastard came into her room during his visit and that the end result traumatized her so much that her grades dropped and her personality shifted enough for the teachers to take notice. What's more was that her mother blatantly called her daughter a liar even when they had documented proof _something_ happened. The kid was able to give the adults a good enough idea of what the Ninth looked like that he's been branded a possible pedophile and Iemitsu is a potential enabler."

Xanxus spewed the water he had been drinking across the table.

"You're shitting me!"

Squalo handed over the reports with far too much glee.

Xanxus read them...and started to laugh. It wasn't a nice one, but considering what the Ninth planned to do to him if he ever went back to the Vongola main house before his name was cleared, it made him feel better.

"What do you think of her, shitty shark?" asked Xanxus. His red eyes gleamed with dark glee.

"She's not trash, boss. She's been upfront about everything so far and she doesn't treat us like we're complete psychos," said Squalo after a moment.

Hell, she treated _Lussuria_ with more respect than anyone ever had on their first meeting without batting an eye to the fact he was an okama who flirted out of habit! Never mind the fact that she had given Xanxus actual respect and treated him like he was a person, rather than some feral beast she had to guard against.

"Mew!"

The two looked down to find... a cat?

"Voi. Is that a nekomata?" said Squalo, spotting the split tails.

The cat sniffed Xanxus, before jumping into his lap and purring. It was a tiny thing, but there was no doubting the intelligence behind it's eyes.

Xanxus stroked it's fur, causing a deep purr to spring forth from it.

"Her name is Rin," said Natsume helpfully. "She's my animal partner much the same way Leon belongs to Reborn or Fantasma to Mammon."

Natsume ducked down and picked up...

"Voi! What sort of cat is _that_?"

" _Natsume, I demand booze!"_ said the cat, shocking both of the older men greatly.

Natsume grinned wickedly.

"Xanxus, meet your new drinking buddy. I've been wanting to see if Nyanko-sensei can drink you under the table for a _long_ time now."

Xanxus' eyes gleamed at the implied challenge.

"And to test that theory, I even brought some of the better stock from the cellars," continued Natsume.

It was the most surreal moment of Squalo's life... watching Xanxus trying to outdrink a weird cat-thing who didn't look like a proper cat at _all_. He did, but only just.

Natori came to Italy to check on his girlfriend and Sky.

He was not expecting to meet someone like Xanxus at all.

He looked at Natsume with open amusement.

"You certainly have quite the ability to pick up difficult strays, don't you?" he asked.

Natsume smiled at him.

"I wasn't going to let him suffer. He's been treated badly by those in power for too long," said Natsume.

Natori eyed Xanxus for a moment.

Xanxus however was focusing on something else.

"Is that a lizard moving on your skin?" he asked slowly in Japanese.

Natsume _and_ Natori stared at him in shock.

"You can see the ayakashi under his skin?!" said Natsume. She swiftly went to get Nyanko from where he was sleeping.

Xanxus was very confused and more than a little irritable. However he didn't miss the bribery going on nearby about _something_ ,or the loud 'poof'.

He turned... to find a massive canine head staring him down with golden eyes, white fur and odd red markings.

"What the actual fuck?!"

"I dare say we can confirm he has the Sight,"said the beast.

Xanxus would have drawn his guns...except Natsume was perfectly calm standing next to the thing.

"I can honestly say I never expected you to have the same ability to See what I could," she admitted. "You can go bother the cooks for the food I promised, sensei."

There was another loud poof of smoke...and the massive beast turned into the weird pig-cat that Natsume called Nyanko-sensei.

Natsume had a rather speculative look on her face.

"You know... this presents an interesting opportunity in the event house arrest gets to be too much for you. It's not like the Ninth would be able to follow you if we hid you using the old paths where humans are not meant to tread..."

"Someone mind explaining what the hell this is about?" demanded Xanxus grumpily.

"...You know how the Giglio Nero have a knack towards seeing things that haven't happened yet?" asked Natsume, thinking of how to word this.

"It's common knowledge," deadpanned Xanxus.

"Well there are people with bloodlines who can see spirits and the supernatural, especially in Japan. Things that are invisible to the human eye like certain species of faeries for instance. However being this close to the center of Catholic belief have pretty much driven most of those sort of things far from human civilization... those of power in the Church would have hunted them down if they hadn't fled to the old country. It seems you either have the right bloodline or the right aura frequency to see them."

Xanxus wanted to deny what she was saying... except he had always seen strange things. It was something he shared with his mother, but she had always cautioned him to never let anyone know of the gift.

He had always suspected his mother might have Romani blood. It would explain a lot of her eccentricities.

"What did you mean about hiding me in paths humans aren't meant to tread?" asked Xanxus.

"Ever heard the term 'spirited away'? That's the general gist of it, except it would be deliberate and you wouldn't be lost in time for several decades. I have a lot of ayakashi friends who would be willing to help if I asked politely," said Natsume flatly.

Xanxus digested the fact he wasn't alone in seeing strange things... and that he had an out he never knew about if things got too bad.

Not that he would take it. He wasn't that sort of man.

"Why did you come to Italy, by the way?" asked Natsume.

"You disappeared without much warning claiming it was a family emergency, and all I could get was that it involved a crisis in Italy," said Natori flatly. "Besides, did you really think I would miss your seventeenth birthday?"

Natsume blinked and realized that yes, her seventeenth was coming up and fast. She had openly forgot in her efforts to keep Xanxus from being thrown into Vindicare and dealing with the general idiocy that was the result of Vongola arrogance.

She also missed the look Natori had in his eyes. He certainly had plans for her birthday, if she was willing that is.


	17. Chapter 17

Natsume's seventeenth wasn't as big a celebration as it could have been.

Namely because she was still hosting the Varia boss and his bonded Elements under the old sanctuary laws that even the Vongola had to honor. Sure, the original laws applied to the Church, but Giotto had used them when he wanted to provide shelter from corrupted priests until they could be replaced so there was a precident.

One that Natsume had rather gleefully reminded the alliance that it wasn't _unheard_ of a famiglia offering sanctuary to those that need it, if the Vongola's precious Primo had done it before. After all, the Giglio Nero was firmly a neutral faction that had never been part of the Alliance, which meant that the Ninth couldn't force them to hand over his 'errant son'.

To say Xanxus was finding almost as much vindictive amusement at the way Natsume was using little known stories and traditions made by the Primo against the Ninth was an understatement. The expression on the old man's face alone made it entirely worth it, and the only thing Xanxus kept thinking of was that his Nonna, the previous Donna Ottava, would have _loved_ Natsume to bits.

As it was, Xanxus had effectively declared the vindictive young woman as his little sister. She was too entertianing not to love, in his opinion, and she already had a suitable boyfriend (not that he saw her in that way) so that was the next best thing.

Even so, Xanxus felt rather gratified that when Natsume used cold, hard logic that anyone with half a brain could believe if someone bothered to point it out that he couldn't have _possibly_ been behind the attack on his brother...that he had more to lose with Federico out of the running and very little to actually _gain_ if he had...that several of the Alliance dons were taking a second look at the 'known facts' of the incident.

Only to realize that the Giglio Nero heiress had merely been the first to figure out the entire situation reeked of a poorly executed set up.

Xanxus was more than just a 'mere assassin'. He was _Varia Quality_...if he had wanted to get rid of his brother he would never have been so blatantly Stupid as to leave witnesses that could easily and positively identify him after the fact, let alone point fingers in his direction.

If he _were_ , then it meant that one of his underlings was free to challenge him for the position of Varia Boss because he had clearly lost his damn mind and was therefor weak enough to take out.

Ironically that had been the one comment to sway most of the dons into actually using their heads into looking into what the Vongola had allowed to be known about the incident, only to find that a lot of the 'facts' simply didn't add up.

Either way the party was relatively small for an heiress who came from such an influential family.

No one wanted to piss off the Vongola, but they also wanted to try and earn into her good graces, as she was already proving strong enough to hold _multiple_ Guardian bonds, some of which belonged to the strongest of the now-former Arcobaleno like Reborn! Not even Luce had managed that.

Xanxus thought it said a lot that Dino Cavallone had shown up to speak with him regarding Federico's condition and had been the first to state he didn't believe for a minute that Xanxus was behind the attack.

For one thing, it was far too sloppy and the "fake" didn't even bother to _try_ and replicate Xanxus' flames in order to render Federico into smoking cinders. Something Xanxus would have _known_ how to pull off considering his specific sub-type of Sky had Storm flames evenly mixed within it, and the fact he was the Varia Boss. That sort of thing would have been child's play for him.

Which meant someone wanted Federico out of the way and had simply used Xanxus, who wasn't particularly well liked by the Ninth or Sawada for ridiculous reasons, as a particularly convenient scapegoat.

Xanxus waited until near the end of the party before he asked Natsume if she had any leads as to who had actually attacked his brother.

"There are only _two_ people off the top of my head who would implicate you as the culprit. The trick is to find a way to mess with the Vongola's succession to the point it draws them out, if only because of sheer frustration."

Xanxus blinked. He mostly suspected Sawada, but he couldn't understand why the braying jackass would _bother_. It wasn't like his kid would inherit anytime soon, after all.

"Who's the first?"

"Daemon Spade. And before you tell me he's dead, I would like to remind you of the fact that _Mukuro_ has already proven capable of possessing people for long periods of time and he's the direct descendant of the Primo and Secundo's Mist guardian. If someone who has limited experience with using Mist flames is able to pull that off with limited training, what do you think a Mist with actual training and a known ruthless streak could pull off?" said Natsume flatly. "Hell, the _Vindice_ are proof that it's _not_ impossible for someone's will to survive centuries, provided they have incentive enough to pull it off."

"I'll bite... how are the Vindice proof?" he asked, openly interested.

"Ever wonder what happened to the previous generations of the Arcobaleno? They didn't suddenly vanish without a trace when the curse ran it's course," she said dryly. "Never mind the oddity of their flames."

Xanxus went dead silent, before he _Stared_ at her in absolute shock.

"No."

"Bermuda is quite a good conversationalist, once you let him rant for an hour or two about the sheer idiocy of the mafia in general and Jaeger has a thing for good tea," said Natsume with a straight face. The fact she _then_ proceeded to pull out a picture of the two and cheerfully pointed out which was which made it even _worse_.

Natsume hoped _someone_ caught the expression on Xanxus' face, because it was absolutely HILARIOUS.

Once the blue screen of death passed and he was thinking straight, Xanxus decided to go back to the original topic of discussion.

"What makes you think Spade is behind this?"

"Who do you think got the Secundo started on the bloodiest and strongest mafia famiglia in history bit?" said Natsume dryly. "That annoying ghost has one _hell_ of a hard-on for insuring the Vongola continue it's bloody reign throughout history and he's manipulative as hell. Odds are he thought Federico was too weak or is trying to put _you_ on the throne, once your name is cleared. Or he wants to manipulate my little brother into causing even more damage without giving a damn about the mafia as a whole. I know for a _fact_ he's manipulated Iemitsu before, either directly or by using his image to almost eliminate one of the Vongola's oldest and closest allies."

She had gone through the reports and was dismayed to find Enma's family was still almost wiped out. Fortunately this time his sister survived, but his parents were still dead.

 _They_ had been very surprised when she reached out to them and offered to help track Iemitsu down for them personally if they really did want revenge on him. Though she neglected to tell them there was a chance Iemitsu was possessed during the incident.

(On the plus side she had secured Enma's friendship all over again.)

"The sad thing is I can't pinpoint if it _is_ him because of the sheer mess that hasn't stopped festering while that old fool is head of the Vongola," said Natsume tiredly. "Until _that_ gets cleared out, there's no telling what sort of rot is going to remain buried. His apathy and complacency have caused enough damage already."

Xanxus might have disagreed with her, but he didn't. That was the very reason he had been pushing for Federico to become Decimo already so they could clean out the Vongola properly before it all imploded around them and started a bloodbath.

"What do you suggest we do then?"

"Considering Federico is _still_ in a coma, which I find highly suspicious as he should have been healed up enough to clarify what happened by now, we may need to kidnap him from the Vongola and get some answers. Though we would also have to keep him away from you so no one could claim he was coerced into lying," said Natsume. "We also need to secure my brother from Iemitsu... with Federico out of the running there is no way they won't think to install him as a puppet so they could control things from the shadows and he is far too young for that sort of responsibility to be placed on his shoulders. If Reborn wasn't already harmonized I know for a fact Nono would have called him in for training."

Xanxus nodded in agreement at that.

"There is _one_ small issue with my plan though."

"What?"

"If we pull this off, then there is a strong possibility that the Vongola's claim as the 'strongest' will go to the Giglio Nero by the time I'm done," she admitted. "At the very least we would end up leading the Alliance."

Xanxus thought that one over. While the idea of the Vongola no longer being the strongest in the Cosa Nostra was shocking, the sad fact was that it had been on a decline for years. The only difference is that at least this way it would have a chance to reclaim it's position at a later date, rather than be destroyed completely.

"Fuck it. I can live with the Giglio Nero taking over for a hundred years or two so long as the Vongola survives and remains in the top ten," said Xanxus after a moment.

"You want to know what the irony is?" asked Natsume.

"What?"

"I'm descended from the Primo through Iemitsu," she said.

Xanxus stared at her. Any doubts he might have had died hearing that, though he had to pity the Primo for having an incompetent jackass like Iemitsu in his bloodline.

Either way the Vongola would remain the strongest...the only difference was that this time they would be operating under a different name. He could live with that.

* * *

 _Three days later..._

Aria had what could only be called a "shit-eating grin" on her face when Natsume walked into breakfast a little later than normal shortly after her seventeenth birthday.

She wasn't the only one...it had taken Reborn a second or two to realize what happened before he just looked plain smug, as did Mukuro.

"It's about time!" said the Mist. "You two have been dancing around each other for far too long, though at least he had the decency to wait."

Natori blinked and realized they had figured it out, before he just looked a little smug.

"I feel like I should be telling you off for taking her virtue away, but instead I'll settle for 'if you hurt her I am going to be among the first to track you down and end you'," said Aria seriously.

Natori eyed Xanxus, Reborn _and_ Mukuro when she said that, as all three were demonstrating an appropriate level of bloodthirsty eagerness to join in if that scenario happened.

He felt like he _should_ be terrified at the thought of having so many overprotective men around his girlfriend, but instead settled on relief. Natsume got into trouble almost by breathing, so it was nice to know he wasn't the only one looking out for her.

"Just so we're clear, if any...accidents...happen I will take full responsibility," Natori said finally, cutting off that particular threat before it bothered to manifest.

Seeing them all settle in for breakfast, he started eating. He had a flight back to Japan in a few hours, though at least he wouldn't have to suffer through commercial flight. Since he was dating Natsume he got to experience the fun of a private plane with all the amenities.

* * *

A black portal opened up where Federico Vongola was being kept alive in his hospital bed.

Jaeger looked at the prone form of the former Vongola heir and silently collected him before disappearing promptly. It took less than half an hour before the Vongola noticed he was missing in the first place.

The second they brought the unconscious form of Federico into Vindicare, the Mist trap that Natsume _insisted_ he be placed in lit up as Jaeger passed through it.

As a former Sky, Federico wouldn't have been hindered by such a thing and Jaeger's flames had shifted long before.

However the _ghost_ attached to the man started swearing quite profusely as it couldn't leave the trap, with a suddenly wide-awake Federico staring at it in shock.

"What..."

Jaeger glared at the incorporeal form of Daemon Spade, who was furious and already starting to attempting to slip out of the trap. It wouldn't hold the ghost for long, but it definitely did what Natsume hoped it would, which was remove him from the man he had been possessing in the first place.

Bermuda stared at the ghost, glared, then turned to Federico.

" **It would seem we owe the Giglio Nero another debt."**

If Natsume hadn't brought it up, they never would have known of Xanxus' innocence and would have had to deal with the Wrath getting on their last nerve and creating even _more_ paperwork for the already overworked Bermuda.

When Bermuda brought Natsume to see the still angry ghost, she had taken one look at him and glared.

"Elena would have been ashamed of the stunt you just pulled. Have you really fallen so low that you would strip what little dignity you had left as a Guardian of the Vongola? She never would have wanted any of this to happen! She helped to create the Vongola to _remove_ tyrants, not create them!"

Bermuda was privately amazed at the way the girl tore the ghost a new one, and over the course of a very cringe-worthy chastising managed to somehow convince the pest to leave the Vongola alone from now on.

The fact she might have mentioned taking it over helped a little too...she just neglected to say what her actual plans were.

He did find it a little odd that she made Daemon Spade write his full name on a slip of paper using a brush though.

At least, until she demonstrated what it was for.

He was _not_ happy being turned into a shiki, especially since she now had FULL control over him.

He didn't have a living Will to fight against her control anymore... he had already demonstrated enough aptitude towards the Flames of Night to make the Vindice worried. They could live with him being held thrall under the young woman who had already demonstrated far more sense than most mafia-raised idiots.


End file.
